Researchers from Imperial College and the University of Oxford have created an interactive tree of life known as OneZoom. The crew says the web site is “the Google Earth of biology” and connects about 2.2 million residing species.
You can zoom in to any species and discover its relationships with others and its IUCN standing.
Announcing the publication of ‘Dynamic visualisation of million-tip trees: The OneZoom project’ 🥳📅out at this time📍in @MethodsEcolEvol by @DrYanWong & @JRosindellwith #OneZoom 3.5 ‘choc chip starfish’🍪⭐️🐟Follow the thread 🧵 for cool stuff you are able to do https://t.co/nCxa5M4xA8 pic.twitter.com/zsnO8J8r7K
— OneZoom (@OneZoomTree) December 14, 2021
Dr. James Rosindell of Imperial College London and Dr. Yan Wong from the Big Data Institute on the University of Oxford described the creation in a paper revealed final week within the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
“By developing new algorithms for visualisation and data processing, and combining them with ‘big data’ gathered from multiple sources, we’ve created something beautiful,” Dr. Wong stated. “It allows people to find their favourite living things, be they golden moles or giant sequoias, and see how evolutionary history connects them together to create a giant tree of all life on Earth.”
The ‘leaves’ on the bushes are colour-coded relying on their threat of extinction: inexperienced means the species will not be threatened, purple signifies threatened, and black denotes lately extinct.
“We have worked hard to make the tree easy to explore for everyone, and we also hope to send a powerful message: that much of our biodiversity is under threat,” Dr. Rosindell added.
Most of the leaves on the tree are gray in color, indicating that they aren’t absolutely studied or information is poor and we don’t learn about their extinction threat. “It’s extraordinary how much research there is still to be done,” Dr. Wong stated.
“Two million species can feel like a number too big to visualise, and no museum or zoo can hold all of them!” Dr. Rosindell stated. “But our tool can help represent all Earth’s species and allow visitors to connect with their plight.”
