Scientists Unveil New 'Tree of Life'

It's 2016, and scientists have created a new & updated version of the Tree of Life - this from a New York Times Article

In the 1970s, Carl Woese of the University of Illinois and his colleagues published the first “universal tree of life”... the tree was presented as 3 trunks.

Our own trunk, known as eukaryotes, includes animals, plants, fungi and protozoans. A second trunk included many familiar bacteria like Escherichia coli.

The third trunk that Woese and his colleagues identified included little-known microbes that live in extreme places like hot springs and oxygen-free wetlands. Woese and his colleagues called this third trunk Archaea.

Scientists who wanted to add new species to this tree of life have faced a daunting challenge: They do not know how to grow the vast majority of single-celled organisms in their laboratories.

To get around this challenge, researchers gather samples of DNA from various environments and reconstruct the genomes of different species. Some samples were collected from harsh environments like thermal/volcanic vents. But researchers were stunned to find that meadow soil is "one of the most microbially complex environments on the planet,”. Fascinating! (I think of peat bogs and those mummified Celts in Ireland)



A re-formatted view of The Tree:


NYT

Link to the Study: A new view of the tree of life





I also want to include a link that talks about David Hillis tree of life - I think it really illustrates how amazing our planet is and how far we've come in the field of biology/genetics. It's astonishing to think 1 species, humans take all these other species for granted. We are but a speck in the grand scheme of it all

io9.gizmodo.com...





I'd like to also add this image describing the decline of Primates in the past 50 years. It's important to recognize mankind's impact in the world and start taking steps to preserve these amazing species

Nice catalog. Becomes ever more complex the more species we discover and the deeper we delve into DNA's structure.

Not the real tree of life though, just a schematic.

a reply to: intrptr

In looking into this I found close to a dozen different versions of this - here's another cool one that illustrates the timeline, mass die offs, other details not seen in the other versions



ETA: sorry, I didn't realize it would be so hard to see

a reply to: FamCore

Looks like life is 'petering' out here. If you could link that chart we could get a better view of our demise.

found a link to a zoomable version- only some of the species on this map are extinct - the "Mass Die Offs" are shown on the timeline but only as a point/date

www.edwardtufte.com...

Actually, the top ridge correlates to all the life that is around today. This depicts a massive explosion of diversity. It is quite a feat to have made these diagrams.


a reply to: intrptr

a reply to: Woodcarver

So what abut the claims I hear that 90 % of all species have gone extinct? Your statement seems to dismiss the current threatened existence of many species today as well.

99.9 percent
Check local listings.

Of all species that have existed on Earth, 99.9 percent are now extinct. Many of them perished in five cataclysmic events. According to a recent poll, seven out of ten biologists think we are currently in the throes of a sixth mass extinction.

a reply to: intrptr

Species go extinct all the time. We dig up their bones, talk about them, make up stories about dragons and unicorns. But they go extinct all the time.

Humans seem to be particularly good at eliminating species. But Mother Earth is far better. And the solar system seems to be the grand champion.

a reply to: FamCore

I believe that insects are the most formidable species on our planet.

I see all kinds of creepy crawlies around my pepper bushes-most of them I have never seen before. They live fast, die young...it's no wonder that WHO suggested that bugs will because a food source in the future as they are so plentiful.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Humans seem to be particularly good at eliminating species. But Mother Earth is far better. And the solar system seems to be the grand champion.

I don't have the time to link…

All the ships sunk in WWII (some ten thousand) all have fuel oil in their tanks which are rusting out and beginning to leak.

All the man made radioactive materials are still here in storage somewhere… longer lived than written history, most of them.

All the chemical runoff from fertilizer, mercury from increasing mining, PCBs from plastics, pollutants from coal, oil and gas industry and their associated accidents. All the paved roads, all the plastic, all the concrete, all the wells, pipelines, mines, dereks, tankers, planes, trains and autos…

increasingly we are the ones mega polluting, with seeming impunity… for now.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Woodcarver

So what abut the claims I hear that 90 % of all species have gone extinct? Your statement seems to dismiss the current threatened existence of many species today as well.

99.9 percent
Check local listings.

Of all species that have existed on Earth, 99.9 percent are now extinct. Many of them perished in five cataclysmic events. According to a recent poll, seven out of ten biologists think we are currently in the throes of a sixth mass extinction.

Those claims are true and are represented in some of the diagrams. That doesn't change the fact that there are more individual creatures and diversity today than at the beginning. Which is stellar proof that all life comes from a small (possibly 1) group and has evolved into a wide array of diverse, but related groups we see today.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Humans seem to be particularly good at eliminating species. But Mother Earth is far better. And the solar system seems to be the grand champion.

I don't have the time to link…

All the ships sunk in WWII (some ten thousand) all have fuel oil in their tanks which are rusting out and beginning to leak.

All the man made radioactive materials are still here in storage somewhere… longer lived than written history, most of them.

All the chemical runoff from fertilizer, mercury from increasing mining, PCBs from plastics, pollutants from coal, oil and gas industry and their associated accidents. All the paved roads, all the plastic, all the concrete, all the wells, pipelines, mines, dereks, tankers, planes, trains and autos…

increasingly we are the ones mega polluting, with seeming impunity… for now.

Yea? Humans pollute. What does that have to do with this thread?

a reply to: Woodcarver

Which is stellar proof that all life comes from a small (possibly 1) group and has evolved into a wide array of diverse, but related groups we see today.

I totally concur with that.

That, seeds and embryos make it easier to transport life by interstellar means. Saves on cargo space.

Discussion of extinction of species isn't part of the tree of life?

a reply to: intrptr

I was referring to your comments about humans causing pollution and mass die offs. Which is a serious threat to the life on our planet, but has only a little bit to do with this particular discussion. Anyways, you are correct.