真核生物 (eukaryote)意指一个有机体里其细胞具有细胞核的生物。几乎所有的生物不是细菌或者古菌便是真核生物，这包括所有的植物、动物、黏菌 (slime molds)、单细胞生物 (protists) 和真菌(fungi)。这个定论必须视病毒是否和原核生物或真核生物细胞一样是从原生汤(primordial soup)里产生，或者是病毒本身已丧失细胞天然的本质，并被分解到最基本的功能后的简化细胞后裔。无论如何，真核生物有可能是从原核生物的共生殖民地（symbiotic colonies）演化而来，所以在自然界里，原核生物细胞是最先出现（他们的构造更简单、更原始）, 但从地质纪录看来，真核生物细胞几乎和原核生物细胞一样古老, 出现在22亿年前。
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相关连结
1. Emmanuelle J. Javaux’s 2007 manuscript about early diversification among Eukaryotes is excellent, but a bit technical for general readers.
2. A section from the Second Edition of Geoffrey M. Cooper's textbook on cells in which he describes the evolution of Eukaryotic cells.
3. A description of the Eukaryotic cells from The Miller Museum.
4. A 1998 article by Jeremy Mohn on the Endosymbiosis theory of how eukaryotic cells evolved out of colonies of prokaryotic cells living together as a single organism is well worth reading.
5. The University of California at Berkeley describes the morphology of eukaryotic cells.
