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• Archaean
  Archaean

  adjective

  of or relating to the highly metamorphosed rocks formed in the early Precambrian era
• archaean
  archaean

  noun

  any member of the Archaea , a domain of prokaryotic microorganisms, distinguished from bacteria on molecular phylogenetic grounds and often found in hostile environments, such as volcanic vents and hot springs

Archaean

¹ British  

/ ɑːˈkiːən /

adjective

1. of or relating to the highly metamorphosed rocks formed in the early Precambrian era

2. the earlier of two divisions of the Precambrian era, during which the earliest forms of life are assumed to have appeared

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archaean ² British  

/ ɑːˈkɪən /

noun

1. any member of the Archaea , a domain of prokaryotic microorganisms, distinguished from bacteria on molecular phylogenetic grounds and often found in hostile environments, such as volcanic vents and hot springs

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Example Sentences

There are four different types of Archaean cell walls.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

Archaean cell walls do not have peptidoglycan, but they may have pseudopeptidoglycan, polysaccharides, glycoproteins, or protein-based cell walls.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

The confounding factor would be if raindrops were somehow much bigger in Archaean times.

From BBC • Dec. 4, 2012

The team concluded that if the biggest imprints in the Ventersdorp rock were formed by the largest raindrops, air pressure in the Archaean could have been no more than twice what it is today.

From BBC • Dec. 4, 2012

A day may come when science will decipher a long and instructive narrative in the masses of quartz and gneiss, and the layers of various kinds, which it calls the Archaean rocks.

From The Story of Evolution by McCabe, Joseph