year 11 bio question

[Olivia Shamoon]

Hi guys,

My sister is doing biology as a year 11 subject and is stuck on this question for her holiday homework:

"a unicellular organism was found in a sample of pond water. Is it reasonable to conclude that this organism must be either a bacterium or archaeon? Briefly explain."

Thanks for the help!!

[Apricot]

It's not reasonable to conclude that it could be just a bacterium or archaeon in the pond water. Some unicellular organisms are also eukaryotic (unlike the bacterium and archaeon which are prokaryotic), hence it's not reasonable to conclude that it's just those two.