Prokaryotes are considered by the scientific community as the most ancient life-forms on Earth. Yet, these primitive cells share many common characteristics with the more modern eukaryotes. However, one significant difference between these two cell types is that only eukaryotes contain A membrane-bound compartments to carry out specialized functions B a selectively-permeable cell membrane to maintain homeostasis C deoxyribonucleic acid to serve as a template to produce proteins D a rigid cell wall which provides structure and support