Haloarchaea

Archaea
Temporal range: Archaean – Recent
Halobacteria sp. strain NRC-1, each cell about 5 μm long.
Scientific classification
Domain:
Archaea
Kingdom:
Euryarchaeota
Phylum:
Euryarchaeota

Haloarchaea are halophiles. They need high salt concentrations to grow. They are a distinct evolutionary branch of the Archaea, and are extremophiles.

The term halobacteria is a misnomer (mistaken name), because we now know the archaea are a different group from bacteria.

Salt ponds with pink colored Haloarchaea

In taxonomy, the Haloarchaea are a class of the Euryarchaeota, found in water with salt. They are common in most environments where large amounts of salt, moisture, and organic material are available.

References

  1. ↑ See the National Center for Biotechnology Information webpage on Halobacteria. Data extracted from the "NCBI taxonomy resources". NCBI. Retrieved 2007-03-19.