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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/6859
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm not familiar with this "domain" level in taxonomy. That must be a new idea since I was in school. Of course Linnaeus originally defined the kingdom as the highest level, and he identified three kingdoms: plants, animals, and minerals. When I was in school I was taught that biologists debated whether things like fungi should not be broken out into a separate kingdom, etc.

If you had interbreeding between an animal and plant -- however one imagines that might be possible! -- that would be "cross-kingdom".

If someone managed to create a holographic life form or a mechanical life form, to my mind that would qualify as another kingdom. It seems to me that the difference between plant and animal would be analagous to the difference between either and holographic life.

It's hard to say where aliens would fit in the existing taxonomy. Would they be similar enough to us that they could be considered new phyla, etc, in the existing kingdoms and classes? That seems unlikely to me. Whether you're supposing evolution or creation, either way I'd expect aliens from another planet to be more different from humans than, say, a bird or an octopus is different from humans. So maybe if we met aliens we'd create new kingdoms for them, or maybe we'd have to create another level, above kingdoms (or domains), one for "terran" and another for "vulcan" or whatever, and then have subdivisions within each.

As you're inventing the aliens or whatever these life forms are, I think it's up to you to decide where they fit in taxonomy. Consider both what you believe to be scientifically plausible and what works in the context of your story. Then just make something up.

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