The Tree of Life

We are just another stop in the history of evolution

As explained at the beginning of this evolutionary journey, the family tree of life is divided into three types: bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. All the organisms you have met in this app are eukaryotes, multicellular organisms that occupy the smallest space in the family tree.

Bacteria don't have a nucleus, and archaea can still survive in much more inhospitable places on Earth than bacteria. For example, in volcanoes or in the darkest crevices of the deep sea. Archaea differ once again in their RNA, which is responsible for converting genetic information into proteins. Archaea have a different sequence of ribosomes here; the proteins responsible for the genetic information are produced at these ribosomes. In addition, archaea do not have a complex cell nucleus like bacteria or eukaryotes.

The question remains open for the future: Whether we are an evolutionary stop and will continue to develop over millions of years or whether we are an evolutionary dead end and will simply die out just like Dunkleosteus, Diplodocus or Gastornis. In the totality of the family tree, one recognises the enormous diversity of species, and it makes us realise how small we are and with how many others we share this earth.