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3.5 billion years of evolution. one graphic. (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by danishism

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[–]milkyjoe241 14 points15 points ago

The Bacteria are completely under-represented.

[–]Pardner 8 points9 points ago

Everything except mammals are under-represented. There are only 5000 mammal species and 10,000 bird species, so those two are completely out of proportion. And there appear to be more birds than insects, despite the fact that there are 1,000,000 insects. Ugh.

[–]twinbee 3 points4 points ago

I think each group has been normalized so that we can better see the overall picture.

Having said that, I would LOVE to see a much bigger more WYSIWYG version that does as you describe with names and pictures alongside each branch.

[–]utexaspunk 3 points4 points ago

Yes- there may be 1,000,000 insects, but many of them are variants of the same general structure, and represent a similar level of complexity. If the chart depicted all the billions of species that have ever lived on Earth at the same scale, humans would be invisible despite being the most significant development to date in the history of evolution.

Yeah- an interactive version where things zoomed in and were labeled would be cool. More detail on the ice ages and mass extinctions would be nice, too...

[–]Tancata 2 points3 points ago

If so it's been normalized in a weird way; the most diverse groups are given the smallest slices of the circle.

Also, the overall picture is obscured - for example the relationships between different groups of eukaryotes, or between bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. Perhaps just as well given how uncertain most of them are. But still, it's not really a good overview.

[–]Pardner 2 points3 points ago

What do you mean "normalized"?

[–]twinbee 1 point2 points ago

Yeah, it almost seems as if there's more than one definition (?)

The way I usually use it would be where a group of numbers stretch or shrink, but still stay in proportion to each other, and where the largest number becomes 1. I think that's the more strict definition. So what word was I really looking for?

[–]Yakroot 2 points3 points ago

What else is new?

[–]jstock23 7 points8 points ago

TIL this is less than 1 Sagan of years.

[–]buildmonkey 4 points5 points ago

The usual problem whenever this image is posted. Placing humans on the far right hand tip of the graphic implies, if you are new to evolutionary theory, that we are somehow the pinnacle of evolution. It would have been less potentially misleading if we were in the middle somewhere.

[–]FinnTheFickle 1 point2 points ago

Agreed. As a nematode, this image offends me.

[–]JoeCoder -2 points-1 points ago

When apes stop scratching in the dirt and develop a space program, we can revisit this idea :P

[–]buildmonkey 3 points4 points ago

What does a space programme have to do with it?

Anyway apes did develop a space programme.

[–]twinbee 5 points6 points ago

According to some posts here, this is a relatively simplistic representation of the whole thing. Also, you can't see pictures/artist impressions/skeletons of every branch.

What would be really cool is to have a website with a giant picture which does something like this and is updated live. It would be the authoritative reference. Are people too lazy?

[–]JoeCoder 1 point2 points ago

Although not quite what you're looking for, and not even a diagram, Simon Conway Morris's Map of Life website documents hundreds of cases of convergence.

[–]twinbee 2 points3 points ago

Yeah, that looks a great source of information. But I was hoping for a giant 10000x10000 'pic' really with names for each branch too. Perhaps with a decent zoom feature or some interactivity so that hovering over a branch would show a picture for that creature on the screen elsewhere.

I understand that some of the smaller branches may be misplaced or even mistaken, so to have the whole thing live and constantly updated to see how our knowledge of how the "ultimate evolution tree" would look would be incredible. We (well experts in the field) can change the tree at any time, and everyone would see past revisions to see what mistakes have since been corrected. That alone would be fascinating to see our knowledge grow deeper and deeper, and how quickly that changes.

I think it would require a joint effort, with lots of people pitching in, but it would be worth it for the gigantic gain.

[–]utexaspunk 1 point2 points ago

Yes- also something like this, but again, more graphical and community-edited...

[–]RICH_LITTLE 4 points5 points ago

I want to see one of those for how religion has evolved since the dawn of time.

[–]EvolutionTheory 1 point2 points ago

That would be amazing!

[–]Ignitus1 2 points3 points ago

That's a really cool graphic. I like how you can pick two species, follow their branches backwards in time, and see when their common ancestor lived.

[–]logically 2 points3 points ago

A brief history of everything that's lived.

[–]phyzome 6 points7 points ago

Nope. They removed (almost) all the extinct branches.

[–]logically 1 point2 points ago

Extant only huh? Ok!

[–]mjfriesen 1 point2 points ago

amazing graphic. My daughter did a school project on some of the old periods circa the Cambrian explosion so I think she'll really appreciate this graphic...

[–]graaahh 0 points1 point ago

This is super awesome, I wonder if it's possible to buy a poster of this. :D

[–]Stig101 0 points1 point ago

It's freaky to see how close humans and dinosaurs are.

[–]TheWalruss 0 points1 point ago

Nyarrrr, they should label today "Mass Extinction" as well!

[–]wotupmang 0 points1 point ago

The timeline is confusing pretty sure things are evolving whilst going backwards in time.

[–]JoeCoder 1 point2 points ago

Needs more knots :P

  1. "Syvanen recently compared 2000 genes that are common to humans, frogs, sea squirts, sea urchins, fruit flies and nematodes. In theory, he should have been able to use the gene sequences to construct an evolutionary tree showing the relationships between the six animals. He failed. The problem was that different genes told contradictory evolutionary stories. This was especially true of sea-squirt genes. ... Some genes did indeed cluster within the chordates, but others indicated that tunicates should be placed with sea urchins, which aren't chordates. 'Roughly 50 per cent of its genes have one evolutionary history and 50 per cent another,' Syvanen says. 'We've just annihilated the tree of life. It's not a tree any more, it's a different topology entirely' Why Darwin was wrong about the tree of life, NewScientist, 2009

It'd also be nice to break up the protosomes a bit. Have branches for arthropods, nematodes, etc.

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