OneZoom: A new, interactive tree of life that follows the diversity of life through fractal-like, swirling branches and leaves. I have something of a soft spot for trees of life. This one is already near the top of my list. The interactive viewer lets you zoom in to individual species, with curved branches resembling fractal spirals. Each leaf carries information about its species, including a color code that relates to its endangered status. It looks like it’s only mammals for now, but there are plans to add more. I really love how they embrace the idea that the web is not made of electronic paper, and stuff like this lets us explore science in ways that we never could in books. Go explore!
Pop-upView Separately

OneZoom: A new, interactive tree of life that follows the diversity of life through fractal-like, swirling branches and leaves.

I have something of a soft spot for trees of life. This one is already near the top of my list. The interactive viewer lets you zoom in to individual species, with curved branches resembling fractal spirals. Each leaf carries information about its species, including a color code that relates to its endangered status.

It looks like it’s only mammals for now, but there are plans to add more. I really love how they embrace the idea that the web is not made of electronic paper, and stuff like this lets us explore science in ways that we never could in books.

Go explore!

Every Bird, In A Tree A team of evolutionary ornithologists (which is a field I really just made up, but hey, maybe it exists?) has drawn the first complete family tree for all known modern bird species. Not only is it a beautiful sight to gaze upon, but it demonstrates a new, important, and controversial idea about biodiversity.  It was thought that any given species would expand and diversify quickly into subspecies (like the many different kinds of honeybees), soon maxing out its environment and filling all the ecological “niches”. Then, competition over limited resources would thin that down to the few most adaptable species. This tree says the opposite, that birds are continuing to diversify even today, and fast. The center of this tree, anchoring branches built using fossil and DNA sequence data, reaches back nearly 50 million years, to the earliest days of birds branching off of dinosaurs. Despite the amazing story of avian evolution that this tree tells, it probably won’t help change Werner Herzog’s mind about chickens. (via Yale News; The full paper, in Nature, can be found here if you have access)
Pop-upView Separately

Every Bird, In A Tree

A team of evolutionary ornithologists (which is a field I really just made up, but hey, maybe it exists?) has drawn the first complete family tree for all known modern bird species. Not only is it a beautiful sight to gaze upon, but it demonstrates a new, important, and controversial idea about biodiversity. 

It was thought that any given species would expand and diversify quickly into subspecies (like the many different kinds of honeybees), soon maxing out its environment and filling all the ecological “niches”. Then, competition over limited resources would thin that down to the few most adaptable species. This tree says the opposite, that birds are continuing to diversify even today, and fast.

The center of this tree, anchoring branches built using fossil and DNA sequence data, reaches back nearly 50 million years, to the earliest days of birds branching off of dinosaurs.

Despite the amazing story of avian evolution that this tree tells, it probably won’t help change Werner Herzog’s mind about chickens.

(via Yale News; The full paper, in Nature, can be found here if you have access)

Source: news.yale.edu

Phylo: A Tetris to Build the Tree of Life


Human computing (you know, what you do in your brain every day) has evolved mastery in pattern recognition. DNA sequence alignments are a complicated, computation-heavy way to compare genes and sequences between different species for use in evolutionary studies.

Could one help the other?

Phylo aims to use the power of the human brain in game form to aid in aligning these sequences. By dragging blocks around in a Tetris-like game board, maximizing matches and minimizing gaps, you’re given points as you align between vastly different species. Best of all, it’s real data for real biology.

Gamers unite for genomics!

Previously: FoldIt, a crowdsourced game for protein folding.

Source: phylo.cs.mcgill.ca

mslilyb: “We found very strong support for the idea that as species live in larger groups, their faces become more simple, more plain,” said lead author Sharlene Santana, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in ecology and evolutionary biology and a postdoctoral fellow with UCLA’s Institute for Society and Genetics. “We think that is related to their ability to communicate using facial expressions. A face that is more plain could allow the primate to convey expressions more easily. (via Evolution is written all over your face) There’s some fantastic facial hair in the primate world.
View Separately

mslilyb:

“We found very strong support for the idea that as species live in larger groups, their faces become more simple, more plain,” said lead author Sharlene Santana, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in ecology and evolutionary biology and a postdoctoral fellow with UCLA’s Institute for Society and Genetics. “We think that is related to their ability to communicate using facial expressions. A face that is more plain could allow the primate to convey expressions more easily. (via Evolution is written all over your face)

There’s some fantastic facial hair in the primate world.

(via ilovecharts)

Source: physorg.com

poptech: A Hillis Plot is a circular diagram that shows the evolutionary relationship between all different life forms. The largest Hillis Plot incorporates about 3,000 species. Click through to see the whole thing, and even download a copy to make a huge print. (via sciencecenter)  Named for Dr. David Hillis, who is in the next building over from me! Hi-res versions with gobsmacking-individual-species-zoom capabilities can be found here.
Pop-upView Separately

poptech:

A Hillis Plot is a circular diagram that shows the evolutionary relationship between all different life forms. The largest Hillis Plot incorporates about 3,000 species. Click through to see the whole thing, and even download a copy to make a huge print. (via sciencecenter) 

Named for Dr. David Hillis, who is in the next building over from me!

Hi-res versions with gobsmacking-individual-species-zoom capabilities can be found here.

Source: zo.utexas.edu