Eli5: What exactly are archaea?

Question

Eli5: What exactly are archaea?

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Answer 1

They’re a large group of single-celled organisms, as varied as plants or animals or bacteria. They’re very common in almost every environment, but because no known archaea cause disease, because they’re not currently economically important, and because the fact that they’re a distinct group from bacteria is a relatively recent discovery, they get less press than bacteria.