December 26, 2012

Is It Time to Redraw the Tree of Life?

Carl Zimmer, Phenomena


AP Photo

In 1837, Charles Darwin scribbled a simple tree in a notebook and scrawled above it, “I think.”

That little doodle represented a big idea: that species were descended from common ancestors. They looked different from each other today thanks to the differences that evolved after their lineages split.

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TAGGED: eukaryotes, archaea, tree of life

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