Biology Direct (Jun 2011)

How stands the Tree of Life a century and a half after <it>The Origin</it>?

  • Koonin Eugene V,
  • O'Malley Maureen A

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1745-6150-6-32
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 1
p. 32

Abstract

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Abstract We examine the Tree of Life (TOL) as an evolutionary hypothesis and a heuristic. The original TOL hypothesis has failed but a new "statistical TOL hypothesis" is promising. The TOL heuristic usefully organizes data without positing fundamental evolutionary truth. Reviewers This article was reviewed by W. Ford Doolittle, Nicholas Galtier and Christophe Malaterre.