- Published on May 21, 2012 - Contact Jim Erickson ANN ARBOR,
Mich.—Since Darwin, assembling an evolutionary tree that shows
the relationships between all known species of life has been one
of the grandest and most daunting challenges facing biologists.
Despite 150 years of effort, there's still no comprehensive tree
of life, no single diagram that displays the links between all
of the 1.8 million or so named species of animals, plants and
microorganisms. Now, with $5.76 million from the U.S. National
Science Foundation, a group of scientists from across the
country will attempt to complete the first rough draft of the
entire tree of life in the first year of a three-year project
called the Open Tree of Life. This tree is expected to be a
powerful tool that will enable scientists to interpret the
patterns and processes of evolution and to predict the responses
of life to rapid environmental change. NSF announced the award
of first-year funding for the project last week. The Open Tree
of Life project is led by