Lokiarchaeum

"Candidatus Lokiarchaeum" is the first discovered genus of Promethearchaeati, the kingdom from which eukaryotes emerged. It belongs to the family Promethearchaeaceae and contains the sole species "Ca. Lokiarchaeum ossiferum".^[2][3][4][5]

"Candidatus Lokiarchaeum"
Scientific classification
Domain:	Archaea
Kingdom:	Promethearchaeati
Phylum:	Promethearchaeota
Class:	Promethearchaeia
Order:	Promethearchaeales
Family:	Promethearchaeaceae
Genus:	"Ca. Lokiarchaeum" corrig. Spang et al., 2015
Species:	"Ca. Lokiarchaeum ossiferum"
Binomial name
"Ca. Lokiarchaeum ossiferum" Rodrigues-Oliveira et al., 2023
Synonyms
"Ca. Lokiarchaeon" Sousa et al., 2016[1]

Discovery and nomenclature

"Ca. Lokiarchaeum" was described in 2015 and was assigned to the phylum "Lokiarchaeota".^[2] In 2017, "Lokiarchaeota" was assigned to the superphylum "Asgard", as well as other phyla.^[6] Later, the superphylum "Asgard" was de-ranked to phylum "Asgardarchaeota" and "Lokiarchaeota" was de-ranked to class "Lokiarchaeia". Other "Asgard" phyla were also de-ranked to classes.^[7][8] In 2023, the species "Ca. Lokiarchaeum ossiferum" was described.^[3] In 2024, "Asgardarchaeota" was renamed to Promethearchaeota and "Lokiarchaeia" was renamed to Promethearchaeia.^[4]