All Articles Tagged As: tree of life

Molecular study could push back angiosperm origins (3/17/2010)

Flowering plants may be considerably older than previously thought, says a new analysis of the plant family tree. Previous studies suggest that flowering plants, or angiosperms, first arose 140 to 190 million years ago. Now, a paper to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences pushes back the age of angiosperms to 215 million years ago, some 25 to 75 million years earlier than either the fossil record or previous molecular studies suggest. ...> Full Article

Method for computing evolutionary trees could revolutionize evolutionary biology (6/20/2009)

Detailed, accurate evolutionary trees that reveal the relatedness of living things can now be determined much faster and for thousands of species with a computing method developed by computer scientists and a biologist at the University of Texas at Austin. ...> Full Article

Early family ties: No sponge in the human family tree (4/4/2009)

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen researchers have confirmed the genetic similarity -- and thus the previously unresolved relationships -- between certain types of sponges, cnidaria and other animal groups that made an early appearance in evolution. Their results could also help trace back the developmental history of organ systems. ...> Full Article

Genome of simplest animal reveals ancient lineage, confounding array of complex capabilities (8/25/2008)

The findings establish a group of organisms as a branching point of animal evolution and identify sets of genes, or a "parts list," employed by organisms that have evolved along particular branches ...> Full Article

And the First Animal on Earth Was a ... (4/11/2008)

Evolutionary history of the comb jelly reveals surprising clues about Earth's first animal ...> Full Article