Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a feature class?

A key aspect of a feature class is that it contains features that share a common geometry type, such as points, lines, or polygons. This means all features within a single feature class will have the same geometric representation rather than various geometries. The other characteristics are essential to the definition of a feature class: it does indeed have a defined set of attribute fields for storing data related to each feature, requires a spatial reference to provide context for the data in terms of location and scale, and it stores features in a persistent format, allowing for long-term storage and retrieval within a GIS. Therefore, stating that a feature class can contain features with various geometries does not align with the standard definition of a feature class.