Tree of Life Web Project

Explore the Tree of Life

Browse the Site

Explore the ToL links Explore the root of the Tree of Life Explore fungi Explore terrestrial vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, etc.) Explore animals Explore flowering plants Explore organisms with nucleated cells Explore arthropods (insects, spiders, crustaceans, etc.)

Learn about ...

Latrodectus (widow spiders) image info

"Widow spiders (genus Latrodectus) are widely feared but poorly known...."read more

News

New tree structure web services for developers... read more

The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) is a collaborative effort of biologists from around the world. On more than 5000 World Wide Web pages, the project provides information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their evolutionary history (phylogeny), and characteristics.

Each page contains information about a particular group of organisms (e.g., echinoderms, tyrannosaurs, phlox flowers, cephalopods, club fungi, or the salamanderfish of Western Australia). ToL pages are linked one to another hierarchically, in the form of the evolutionary tree of life. Starting with the root of all Life on Earth and moving out along diverging branches to individual species, the structure of the ToL project thus illustrates the genetic connections between all living things.

read more about the Tree of Life Web Project...
portrait of Charles Darwin at age 72

"The affinities of all the beings of the same class have sometimes been represented by a great tree... As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications."

Charles Darwin, 1859
Privacy Policy — Copyright Policies

Tree of Life design, images, and icons copyright © 1995-2005 Tree of Life Web Project. All rights reserved.
Image of rose © 1999 Nick Kurzenko. Image of annelid worm © 2001 Greg W. Rouse.

The Tree of Life Web Project is hosted by The University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and The University of Arizona Library