“Tree of Life” visualizes the relationship of all known ones

With the "Tree of Life" two scientists have developed a visualization of the relationship of all current species to one another over the course of nine years. James Rosindell from Imperial College London and Yan Wong from Oxford University have recorded the more than 2,2 million known species from humans to insects to mushrooms & Co. in an interactive display and now theirs "Tree of Life" published online.

To create the interactive graphic, new algorithms were developed and big data from various sources were used. Each known species is symbolized by a leaf. The branches correspond to the lines of descent and kinship. If the leaf is green, the corresponding species is not endangered, red stands for endangered and black for "recently extinct". Where the leaves are gray, there is no official classification.

So you can seemingly endlessly zoom into the branches, search for certain species or species specifically (also in German) and answer questions “that you hadn't even asked yourself: So who was wondering when the last common ancestor of humans? and the oak tree lived, that will find the answer - namely 2,15 billion years ago, ”reports Gregor Kucera in the Wr. Newspaper.

The “Tree of Life” or “Google Earth of Biology”, as the scientists also call their graphic, is to be used in future, for example, in zoos and museums on the subject of species protection, biodiversity and evolution. If you want to support the project financially, you can sponsor a paper.

Image: © OneZoom.org