Tree of life

What is the Tree of life?

The Tree of life is an evolutionary tree showing the genealogy of all organisms changing through time.

The branching displays different species descending from common ancestors. The tree is connecting all organisms, from the smallest microbe to the largest plants and vertebrates.

Charles Darwin famously sketched the branching structure of an evolutionary tree of life in his notebooks.

A tree is a helpful for:

visualising interrelationships
exploring patterns and processes
following the tempo and mode of evolutionary change.

The Tree of life is more than just a hypothesis upon which we hang our data and visualise the natural world, it is a tool encapsulating time, diversity, change, natural history and all of life on Earth.

Assembling the Tree of life

Find out more about how scientist are constructing the Tree of life.
Using and contributing to the Tree of life

Find out how Museum scientists are contributing to the Tree of life and how they are using information from the Tree of life for other research.
Caecilian amphibians in South India

The Natural History Museum is a leading research centre for caecilians. We are currently involved in an exciting collaboration with colleagues in India.