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The tree of life or universal tree of life is a metaphor, conceptual model, and research tool used to explore the evolution of life and describe the relationships between organisms, both living and extinct, as described in a famous passage in Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859). [1]
Various trees of life are recounted in folklore, culture and fiction, often relating to immortality or fertility.They had their origin in religious symbolism. According to professor Elvyra Usačiovaitė, a "typical" imagery preserved in ancient iconography is that of two symmetrical figures facing each other, with a tree standing in the middle.
The idea of a tree of life arose from ancient notions of a ladder-like progression from lower into higher forms of life (such as in the Great Chain of Being).Early representations of "branching" phylogenetic trees include a "paleontological chart" showing the geological relationships among plants and animals in the book Elementary Geology, by Edward Hitchcock (first edition: 1840).
A speculatively rooted tree for RNA genes, showing major branches Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryota The three-domain tree and the eocyte hypothesis (two-domain tree), 2008. [7] Phylogenetic tree showing the relationship between the eukaryotes and other forms of life, 2006. [8] Eukaryotes are colored red, archaea green, and bacteria blue.
A tree of life, like this one from Charles Darwin's notebooks c. July 1837, implies a single common ancestor at its root (labelled "1"). A phylogenetic tree directly portrays the idea of evolution by descent from a single ancestor. [3] An early tree of life was sketched by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in his Philosophie zoologique in 1809.
Due to horizontal gene transfer, this "tree of life" may be more complicated than a simple branching tree, since some genes have spread independently between distantly related species. [278] [279] To solve this problem and others, some authors prefer to use the "Coral of life" as a metaphor or a mathematical model to illustrate the evolution of ...
Scientists have debated the definition of life for decades, but they still lack a consensus on the answer. Skip to main content. News. 24/7 help. For premium support please call: 800 ...
In biology, phylogenetics (/ ˌ f aɪ l oʊ dʒ ə ˈ n ɛ t ɪ k s,-l ə-/) [1] [2] [3] is the study of the evolutionary history of life using genetics, which is known as phylogenetic inference. It establishes the relationship between organisms with the empirical data and observed heritable traits of DNA sequences, protein amino acid sequences ...