What is the tree of life?
The tree of life shows how all life on earth is related. Each leaf represents a different species. The branches show how these many species evolved from common ancestors over billions of years. In our interactive tree of life you can explore the relationships between 2,235,076 species and wonder at 105,344 images on a single zoomable page.
- 2,235,076 species
- 105,344 images
Biodiversity and Conservation...
We want to help everyone appreciate biodiversity and the need to conserve it.
Red leaves on our tree of life show species known to be under threat of extinction.
Green leaves are either okay for now but might be nearly threatened.
Most leaves are grey meaning that it's not known how threatened they are.
What they say...
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The best tool I’ve seen for exploring the tree of life on this planet.
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OneZoom is a brilliant, interactive tool for understanding the scope and scale of the tree of life, including highlights for conservation priorities.
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…simply the most useful tool for understanding phylogenetic and evolutionary relationships.
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In my opinion, it is the best visualisation of evolution that's out there for the lay person.
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I love the OneZoom tool - really easy to use and the visualization is great. I've just shared it with my 13 year old, who is a science geek - he loved it and is still playing with it!
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OneZoom is one of the most fascinating visualization projects I've seen in years!
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I often use OneZoom in my class, the students love it.
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I showed OneZoom to my colleagues as - honestly - the most impressive visualization of scientific results I have ever come across.
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I wanted to congratulate the OneZoom team on the amazing interface and reference resource that is OneZoom. Amazing job!
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Genius visualisation project mapping the entire tree of life into a single explorable diagram.
Become a sponsor...
OneZoom is a registered non-profit in the UK, all our products are available for free. 826 people like you have helped us by making donations. Their names have appeared as sponsors on 1463 leaves of our tree of life leaves of our tree of life.
Only one name per leaf so get your favourite while you can, for yourself or as a gift.
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Psilocybe atlantisSponsored forNatalia & Trevor — For the journey ahead
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Red-winged blackbird
(Agelaius phoeniceus)Sponsored forMandy Eppley — love, Aloe -
Brookesia micraSponsored forRachel Hughes — A friend for the frog
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Big-eye shark
(Alopias pelagicus)Sponsored byIvan Conesa Alcolea -
Scalloped hammerhead
(Sphyrna lewini)Sponsored byIvan Conesa Alcolea -
New garden bumblebee
(Bombus hypnorum)Sponsored forAnnika Ahnell -
West indian lime
(Citrus aurantiifolia)Sponsored forJan Ahnell -
Paradise apple
(Malus pumila)Sponsored byJoshua Adams — The Apple Lord -
Salmon louse
(Lepeophtheirus salmonis)Sponsored byMichael Dondrup — LiceBase -
Flesh-eating bacteria
(Aeromonas hydrophila)Sponsored forIzaak Manning — Wendevalta -
Inky cap
(Coprinopsis atramentaria)Sponsored byShelly Stewart — supports free education -
Psilocybe mexicanaSponsored byIan Daily — Flesh of the Gods
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Blue dicks
(Dichelostemma capitatum)Sponsored byParker Hicks — California, USA -
Caapi
(Banisteriopsis caapi)Sponsored byRobert Rowland — Adelaide, Australia -
Great cormorant
(Phalacrocorax carbo)Sponsored forEric Dorfman -
'ohi'a lehua
(Metrosideros polymorpha)Sponsored forDr. JB Friday — Champion of Hawaii’s forests -
Northern mockingbird
(Mimus polyglottos)Sponsored forRaymond Smullyan -
Cuttlefish
(Metasepia pfefferi)Sponsored byDebbie Mercer — Illinois, USA -
Jack pine
(Pinus banksiana)Sponsored byAnn Hilton Fisher — Marquette Michigan USA -
Hoary marmot
(Marmota caligata)Sponsored byWilliam J.R. Longabaugh
What we've been up to...
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14 December 2021
Announcing the publication of ‘Dynamic visualisation of million-tip trees: The OneZoom project’ out today in Methods in Ecology and Evolution. This publication accompanies OneZoom version 3.5 'Chocolate chip starfish' and explains a lot of the science behind the OneZoom project.
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16 October 2020
OneZoom version 3.4.1 released with new public APIs providing information on the popularity of species and representative images for groups of species as well as other tools intentended for use by researchers and other science communication projects.
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15 October 2020
A new publication, Dynamic visualisation of million-tip trees: the OneZoom project, is now live on BioRxiv describing a lot of the research that's gone on behind the scenes over the last five years to make OneZoom a reality.
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30 April 2020
Thank you to the first people who supported us with sponsorship four years ago. Your sponsored leaves would normally be up for renewal right now. We've decided to extend your sponsorships for free so you don't have to worry about it at this difficult time during a global pandemic. We will write to all our sponsors giving plenty of notice when it's time to renew.