A group of living things
Eukaryotes
Eukaryota
The nucleus family, from mushrooms to you
Its members' last common ancestor lived about 1.8 billion years ago.
You are part of this group. See how.
Every member of this group keeps its main DNA inside a nucleus, a membrane sac with pores. Most also carry mitochondria, tiny power plants that were once free bacteria and still copy themselves. That shared cell plan links you to every animal, plant and fungus, from palm trees and mushrooms to spiders.
In the tree used here this big family sits inside the archaea, with the gut methane-maker shown beside it as one of them. Mitochondria release energy by breaking down food, mostly using oxygen. Most plants and many algae also hold tiny parts where photosynthesis builds food from carbon dioxide and water.
Their cells are mostly much larger than bacterial cells. Bodies run from pond microbes you need a microscope to see clearly to the tallest redwood trees, which reach over 100 metres tall, about as tall as a 30-storey tower.
Inner skeleton
A complex inner skeleton of tiny threads gives the cell shape and moves parts about.
Different tails
Many tiny members swim with whip-like tails with a ring of tiny tubes inside, built quite differently from the tails of bacteria.
Same split
In all members, when cells divide the copied DNA is shared out in much the same neat steps, though details vary.
Inside eukaryotes
- Plants and red algaeOne ancestor swallowed a cyanobacterium and kept it as a solar panel; its descendants are green plants and red algae.
- Kelp, diatoms and kinA huge, little-known branch: giant seaweeds and glass-shelled plankton that make much of our oxygen.
- Amoebas, fungi and animalsSurprise: you are closer to a slime mould and a mushroom than to any plant.