archaebacteria
Reading time:These primitive bacteria, precursor models of the more conventional prokaryotes, are generally hosts found in extreme environments (as may have existed at the beginning of the Earth); they are now to be found in acid and/or extremely hot springs, hypersaline water, sea beds and also in the digestive tract of animals or, more specifically in water treatment, in methane fermenters. Table 2 provides a simplified system of the forms associated with these different mediums.