5 ms·

Tree of Life Explorer

106 points by n42 3y ago

29athrowaway 3y ago
Also: http://www.tolweb.org/tree/ http://www.tolweb.org/tree/ The most interesting part to me, is the root of the tree of life, or LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_universal_common_ancestor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_universal_common_ancestor
- limbicsystem 3y ago
  Also https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/lab/evolution/research#/chooser https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/lab/evolution/research#/c... But but not a good experience on mobile. I like the feature where you can compare two species...
derbOac 3y ago
Some of these relationships are really interesting. For example, according to this, an American Robin is more closely related to the Tyrannosaurus rex than the Tyrannosaurus rex was to, say, a Brachiosaur. I guess I knew birds were closely related to dinosaurs but I didn't think of it quite that way. The mass extinction intervals are also a little concerning when you think of where we are now. It looks like right about now is when there would be another one, if there was some regularity to them.
- pvg 3y ago
  It looks like right about now is when there would be another one, if there was some regularity to them The timescale of the tree graph is a bit misleading since it's not very... scaly. Better extinction event graph: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event They're not all that regular nor are we particularly 'overdue' a big one.
  - n42 3y ago
    This video gives you an idea of the scale, using a football field: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8V_glRW1hA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8V_glRW1hA
  - alexthehurst 3y ago
    But: we are KNOWN to be undergoing one right now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction?wprov=sfti...
- boxed 3y ago
  > I guess I knew birds were closely related to dinosaurs but I didn't think of it quite that way. Birds ARE dinosaurs. Just like humans ARE mammals.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
boxed 3y ago
Also check out my hobby project: https://relatedhow.kodare.com/ https://relatedhow.kodare.com/ It's not as fancy looking, but it's a lot more complete.
not_knuth 3y ago
I quite like the radial timeline on the visualisation shared by OP. A while back I was looking for exactly this kind of visualization and stumbled upon https://lifemap.univ-lyon1.fr https://lifemap.univ-lyon1.fr
Tistron 3y ago
I love exploring the tree of life in different ways, and I appreciate the other links here in the comments. My favourite one hasn't been mentioned yet: https://www.onezoom.org/life.html https://www.onezoom.org/life.html It's fun to see the different UX considerations and possibilities that can go into this space.
isolli 3y ago
Fantastic! I think that I prefer their visualization to the alternatives that have been suggested here (all worth exploring, of course). I have been looking for a good tree-of-life poster for a while, so I was disappointed to read this on their website. I didn't know that the EU was such a tangled mess of regulation. > We ship our posters throughout North America and internationally to most countries. Unfortunately, due to regulations that have increased shipping costs and complexities, we are unable to ship to countries within the EU at this time.
TeMPOraL 3y ago
Of course there is no single tree of life - the roots and branches depend on a particular set of genetic properties being measured; pick a different set, you'll get a different tree. Is there a tool somewhere that lets you explore the directed graph of life? (I'd say DAG of life, but I'm not sure if you can have a useful representation here without cycles.)
- khimaros 3y ago
  there are a lot of nice ways to visualize and navigate through tree shaped data, but fewer user friendly options for DAGs. are there interfaces to DAGs in general that you've enjoyed?
fastaguy88 3y ago
For a different, more quantitative perspective, take a look at timetree.org. Timetree.org makes it very easy to see the evolutionary times between pairs of organisms.
mrpopo 3y ago
So, all the data is in HTML format in the page and the browser has to generate an SVG for each frame?
KineticLensman 3y ago
For a complementary take on this, I'd recommend 'The Ancestor's Tale' [0] by Richard Dawkins. It goes backwards through time, focussing on the points where our history branches from a common ancestor to different modern 'cousins'. In other words, similarly to the tree of life explorer, it's looking at the non-leaf nodes (the branching points) inside the tree of life, albeit with a fixed path, but adding info about what actually changed at the branching point. So we successively meet other hominids, primates, non-primate mammals, non-mammal chordates, non-chordate animals, etc etc, each with many different sub-divisions. It's quite a unique perspective, and brings home just how extensive the tree of life actually is. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancestor%27s_Tale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancestor%27s_Tale
neolefty 3y ago
So cool! I especially like the "122-millionth cousin, 28 million times removed" description and the fact that it has many different pictures for "Human".

106 points by n42 3y ago

Also: http://www.tolweb.org/tree/ http://www.tolweb.org/tree/ The most interesting part to me, is the root of the tree of life, or LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_universal_common_ancestor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_universal_common_ancestor

limbicsystem 3y ago
Also https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/lab/evolution/research#/chooser https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/lab/evolution/research#/c... But but not a good experience on mobile. I like the feature where you can compare two species...

derbOac 3y ago

Some of these relationships are really interesting. For example, according to this, an American Robin is more closely related to the Tyrannosaurus rex than the Tyrannosaurus rex was to, say, a Brachiosaur. I guess I knew birds were closely related to dinosaurs but I didn't think of it quite that way. The mass extinction intervals are also a little concerning when you think of where we are now. It looks like right about now is when there would be another one, if there was some regularity to them.

pvg 3y ago
It looks like right about now is when there would be another one, if there was some regularity to them The timescale of the tree graph is a bit misleading since it's not very... scaly. Better extinction event graph: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event They're not all that regular nor are we particularly 'overdue' a big one.
- n42 3y ago
  This video gives you an idea of the scale, using a football field: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8V_glRW1hA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8V_glRW1hA
- alexthehurst 3y ago
  But: we are KNOWN to be undergoing one right now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction?wprov=sfti...
boxed 3y ago
> I guess I knew birds were closely related to dinosaurs but I didn't think of it quite that way. Birds ARE dinosaurs. Just like humans ARE mammals.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

boxed 3y ago

Also check out my hobby project: https://relatedhow.kodare.com/ https://relatedhow.kodare.com/ It's not as fancy looking, but it's a lot more complete.

not_knuth 3y ago

I quite like the radial timeline on the visualisation shared by OP. A while back I was looking for exactly this kind of visualization and stumbled upon https://lifemap.univ-lyon1.fr https://lifemap.univ-lyon1.fr

Tistron 3y ago

I love exploring the tree of life in different ways, and I appreciate the other links here in the comments. My favourite one hasn't been mentioned yet: https://www.onezoom.org/life.html https://www.onezoom.org/life.html It's fun to see the different UX considerations and possibilities that can go into this space.

isolli 3y ago

Fantastic! I think that I prefer their visualization to the alternatives that have been suggested here (all worth exploring, of course). I have been looking for a good tree-of-life poster for a while, so I was disappointed to read this on their website. I didn't know that the EU was such a tangled mess of regulation. > We ship our posters throughout North America and internationally to most countries. Unfortunately, due to regulations that have increased shipping costs and complexities, we are unable to ship to countries within the EU at this time.

TeMPOraL 3y ago

Of course there is no single tree of life - the roots and branches depend on a particular set of genetic properties being measured; pick a different set, you'll get a different tree. Is there a tool somewhere that lets you explore the directed graph of life? (I'd say DAG of life, but I'm not sure if you can have a useful representation here without cycles.)

khimaros 3y ago
there are a lot of nice ways to visualize and navigate through tree shaped data, but fewer user friendly options for DAGs. are there interfaces to DAGs in general that you've enjoyed?

fastaguy88 3y ago

For a different, more quantitative perspective, take a look at timetree.org. Timetree.org makes it very easy to see the evolutionary times between pairs of organisms.

mrpopo 3y ago

So, all the data is in HTML format in the page and the browser has to generate an SVG for each frame?

KineticLensman 3y ago

For a complementary take on this, I'd recommend 'The Ancestor's Tale' [0] by Richard Dawkins. It goes backwards through time, focussing on the points where our history branches from a common ancestor to different modern 'cousins'. In other words, similarly to the tree of life explorer, it's looking at the non-leaf nodes (the branching points) inside the tree of life, albeit with a fixed path, but adding info about what actually changed at the branching point. So we successively meet other hominids, primates, non-primate mammals, non-mammal chordates, non-chordate animals, etc etc, each with many different sub-divisions. It's quite a unique perspective, and brings home just how extensive the tree of life actually is. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancestor%27s_Tale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancestor%27s_Tale

neolefty 3y ago

So cool! I especially like the "122-millionth cousin, 28 million times removed" description and the fact that it has many different pictures for "Human".