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As I remember from the mid-90s there were all sorts of non-standard synthesis experiments, results, models that complicated the standard theory.
Related to the above is the newer classification system where Archaea represent very old bacteria-like organisms that have no organelles or nucleus. (It was mentioned in passing.) This classification is based on molecular level where evolutionary similarities and difference in metabolic pathways are studied. Here's the wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaea
``Archaea were first classified as a separate group of prokaryotes in 1977 by Carl Woese and George E. Fox in phylogenetic trees based on the sequences of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes.[4] These two groups were originally named the Archaebacteria and Eubacteria and treated as kingdoms or subkingdoms, which Woese and Fox termed Urkingdoms. Woese argued that this group of prokaryotes is a fundamentally different sort of life. To emphasize this difference, these two domains were later renamed Archaea and Bacteria.[5] The word archaea comes from the Ancient Greek ἀρχαῖα, meaning "ancient things".[6] ''
It's along article but there are a lot of very suggestive supports for this idea of a horizontal evolution.
There was a lot of interest in Archaebacteria up at LBL because of their roles in carbon cycle and environment, etc.
CG