How do you think a code consisting of so few characters can encode the
instructions for building thousands of different proteins?

small, big, or no change could occur in the phenotype. it could cause something as simple as a cats ears to curl backwards or something as frighting as death. it could also occur in the protien-coding area and have an effect on that but no effect on the amino acids. what has to occur is a changing in the hox gene or the control gene.

age range would be the answer

not sure if this is what you'r looking for eubacteria and archaebacteria