Monera
A moneran is a little cell without a nucleus. They make more little cells by dividing, and they do a darn good job at it. If you would like a more technical definition, I can provide one. Be warned, it's tediously boring.
Monerans are prokaryotes, which is a fancy way of saying their DNA isn't found in a neat little package, it's spread throughout the cell. If you want to get technical, pro means early, or predecessor, and karyote means nucleus. It is believed that these are ancient organisms whose existence was before (or preceeding) the nucleated cells. How about taking a look at some monerans?
Most scientists think the kingdom "Monera" should be divided into two kingdoms. The two main groups (called domains) are very, very different from each other.
Archaea
Archea means old, or ancient. These bacteria live in conditions similar to the ancient earth. Many of them can't tolerate the "normal" atmosphere. They like salt, heat, methane, acid or other grueling conditions.
Eubacteria
Eu means true, and, of course, bacteria is bacteria. These are common bacteria and are found almost everywhere on earth.
We have divided bacteria into "ancient" bacteria and "true" bacteria. Do you want an easy way to tell them apart? If it can live in conditions similar to the ones you live in, it's eubacteria. If it lives where you can't, it's probably archea. Please find out more about these unique critters!
Go to the archaea site,
go to the eubacteria site, or
return to the overview.