[Taxacom] Metazoa or Animalia?

[Kenneth Kinman]

Hi Curtis:
       Eubacteria were first to split off in the tree of life.
Cavalier-Smith has gone as far as arguing that Metabacteria
(Archaebacteria) probably arose less than a billion years ago.  I think
that age is too young, but I still believe Eubacteria arose much earlier
than Metabacteria.            
       As for the prefix meta-, I believe it has a lot of different
meanings.  "The New Oxford American Dictionary" lists one meaning as
"denoting something of a higher or second-order kind."  So I don't think
"higher" is such a stretch.                   
      --------Ken Kinman              
P.S.   Point well taken about respiration and plants.  So forget what I
said about mitochondria and respiration.  I clearly didn't think that
one through, and sometimes rattle on when I would be better off keeping
it short and sweet.  My bad.

**************************************************
Curtis Clark wrote:
    To be precise, ???? followed by the genitive means "among",
"between", or "with", and followed by the accusative means "after" or
"afterwards". "Higher" is a real stretch. 

> However, even Woese himself seems to now 
> believe that Eubacteria split off first 

Split off what? 
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