The Tree of Life

In light of an amazing, recent study conducted by Laura A. Hug and colleagues (see Resources), I figured it would be fun to incorporate all of the available data from various phylogenetic studies and create my own tree of biological life! I have tried to include as many of the major groups of life in this study, but as always there will be omissions so if you don't see a particular lineage you're favoring I'm sorry. Emphasis has been drawn out on many groups, particularly the flowering plants, arthropds, and vertebrates (seeing as human beings are vertebrates themselves, we're always curious as to our place in nature). This tree does not include extinct organisms. If you'd like a more thorough and complete look at vertebrate evolution, you should check out my good friend big tree here: albertonykus.deviantart.com/ar…. The images used throughout were from various individuals on PhyloPic.org (proper credits are in the image). The tree was constructed on FreeMind and altered on Paint. And as always PaleoGoGo is there to clarify.

Resources used:

Prokaryotic Life: Hug et al, 2016: “A New View of the Tree of Life.”

Eukaryotic Lineages: Burki et al, 2012: “The evolutionary history of haptophytes and cryptophytes: phylogenomic evidence for separate origins."

Unikonts: Paps et al, 2013: “Molecular phylogeny of unikonts: new insights into the position of apusomonads and ancyromonads and the internal relationships of opisthokonts.”

Fungi: James et al, 2006: “Reconstructing the early evolution of Fungi using a six-gene phylogeny.”

Animals: Dunn et al, 2014: “Animal Phylogeny and Its Evolutionary Implications.”

Sponges: Wörheide et al, 2012: “Deep phylogeny and evolution of sponges (phylum Porifera).”

Cnidarians: Kayal et al, 2013: “Cnidarian phylogenetic relationships as revealed by mitogenomics.”

Xenacoelomorphs: Cannon et al, 2016: “Xenacoelomorpha is the sister group to Nephrozoa.”

Flatworms: Martín-Durán & Egger, 2012: “Developmental diversity in free-living flatworms.”

Annelids: Struck et al, 2011: “Phylogenomic analyses unravel annelid evolution.”

Mollusks: Stöger et al, 2013: “The Continuing Debate on Deep Molluscan Phylogeny: Evidence for Serialia (Mollusca, Monoplacophora + Polyplacophora).”

Nematodes: Blaxter, 2011: “Nematodes: The Worm and Its Relatives.”

Arthropods: Legg et al, 2013: “Arthropod fossil data increase congruence of morphological and molecular phylogenies.”

Insects: Misof et al, 2014: “Phylogenomics resolves the timing and pattern of insect evolution.”

Ray-finned Fishes: Betancur-R et al, 2013: “The Tree of Life and a New Classification of Bony Fishes.”

Squamates: Reeder et al, 2015: “Integrated Analyses Resolve Conflicts over Squamate Reptile Phylogeny and Reveal Unexpected Placements for Fossil Taxa.”

Birds: Prum et al, 2015: “A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing.”

Mammals: Asher & Helgen, 2010: “Nomenclature and placental mammal phylogeny.”

Green Algae: Leliaert et al, 2012: “Phylogeny and Molecular Evolution of the Green Algae.”

Angiosperms: Stevens, P. F., 2001 Onwards: “Angiosperm Phylogeny Website."