GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
The Tree of Life
Click image for larger view.
This tree is constructed from an analysis of small subunit rRNA sequences sampled from approximately 3,000 species from throughout the Tree of Life. The species were chosen based on their availability, but most of the major taxonomic groups were included, sampled very roughly in proportion to the number of known species in each group (although many groups remain over- or under-represented).
The number of species represented is approximately the square-root of the number of species thought to exist on Earth (i.e., three thousand out of an estimated nine million species), or approximately 0.18% of the 1.7 million species that have been formally described and named.
This tree has been used in many museum displays and other educational exhibits, and its use for educational purposes is welcomed. This is a photo of the tree as it was used in an exhibit on "Massive Change: The Future of Global Design" (which first opened in the Vancouver Art Gallery, and has since appeared in Toronto and Chicago, and is scheduled to be displayed in various venues around the world)
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Comments
I really wanted the high res version of this, but flickr doesn't seem to make them available. Any way to get at the hires one?
thanks, keep your head high, 2007 will rock!
Posted by: david1947 | December 1, 2006 9:41 PM
the biggest version i can find, which incidentally, is also stored on my flickr account, is 800x800 -- not very big, really. i will poke around on the internet to see if there is something larger.
Posted by: GrrlScientist | December 1, 2006 9:48 PM
Very interesting image.
There is a PDF of this image available at:
http://www.zo.utexas.edu/faculty/antisense/DownloadfilesToL.html
The image is huge, with a recommended printing size of 54".
Cheers.
Posted by: ursine | December 1, 2006 11:02 PM
In fact it is vector art so it is resolution independent. You can zoom in on the image as close as you like in Adobe Acrobat and print it as large as you like. Very, very cool image.
Posted by: Jeff Knapp | December 2, 2006 1:17 AM
Is this the same tree? You can get all the detail you want.
Posted by: polliwog | December 2, 2006 1:34 AM
I love the little "you are here" notation. It is always a good idea to know where you are. It also gives you a little perspective on our place in the world.
Posted by: Joseph j7uy5 | December 2, 2006 8:37 AM
polliwog, that is very cool. I have added that to my bookmarks.
Posted by: Jeff Knapp | December 2, 2006 3:40 PM
Looks more like a tree of multicellular eukaryotes to me. That Protist label makes me wanna puke. There isn't a more meaningless taxonomic category that I know of.
P.S. I think you forgot to a text size tag when you put in your Technorati links.
Posted by: RPM | December 3, 2006 12:44 PM
Very nice, thanks. Now, as a card-carrying member of the "more" club, I wish it had names on the interior branches - or am I missing a way to read it that shows T.Rex?
Posted by: david1947 | December 4, 2006 1:16 AM
Absolutely wonderful!
Posted by: Me | April 25, 2008 4:13 PM
I'm not sure this is correct - according to this the closest relatives of human beings are Mus Musculus (the house mouse), Rattus Norvegicus (the brown rat) and Oryctolagus Cuniculus (the european rabbit). I've heard tell from a couple of reliable sources that our two closest relatives are Pan Paniscus and Pan Troglodytes resepectively. Whilest I think the genetic tree of life is extremely beautiful and eloquent on many level, not to mention is highly informative, I do believe it helps to check the evidence - the essence of science. It seems I'll be continuing my search of a complete and correct tree elsewhere, and it does exist as I once had a copy...still it is a cool picture, and speaks volumes about the ultimate significance of humanity and what some modecules can do given 4 billion years :)
Posted by: oneeyedman | December 8, 2008 3:43 PM