Eukarya: Definition, Characteristics & Examples

What makes us so complex? How are we any different from simple single-celled bacteria? It’s because we’re further up the evolutionary chain; we’re examples of eukaryotes. In this lesson, we’ll define Eukarya and eukaryotes and explore their characteristics.
Biological Taxonomy
In science we’ve developed a way to keep organized. In biology, specifically, we have a method called biological taxonomy. There are eight rankings to help us keep living things organized. These ranks, in order of most general to most specific, are Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. An easy way to remember this is to take the first letter from each rank, and we get the following: Did King Phillip Come Over For Great Spaghetti?

In this lesson, we’ll discuss the first rank, domain, in regards to Eukarya. At this point, domain is still somewhat controversial and not fully recognized, but it is generally accepted by the scientific community. As students and scientists, we recognize the idea of the domain as very real and similarly need to understand it.

What Are Eukarya?
Eukarya includes eukaryotic organisms. These are organisms with cells that contain a nucleus as well as membrane-bound organelles. The kingdoms most associated with Eukarya are the Plantae, Animalia, and Fungi kingdoms. Additionally, Kingdom Protista has had some of its organisms, such as amoebas and some seaweeds, classified as Eukarya.

We, as humans, are classified as Eukarya. All of our own cells have a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles. In fact, all complex organisms are eukaryotic. There is just no real way for prokaryotic organisms to grow into the complexity that eukaryotes have.

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