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 105,391 images on a single zoomable page.
- 2,235,076 species
- 105,391 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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This project has enormous potential both as a tool for increasing public knowledge and engagement but also as an aid to research in Conservation and Biodiversity.
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The best tool I’ve seen for exploring the tree of life on this planet.
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I often use OneZoom in my class, the students love it.
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This will revolutionize how we teach and understand the Tree of Life. It is an invaluable tool for communicating the grand scope of life's history.
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The best interactive tree of life ever!
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I have been telling people about how incredible OneZoom is all week!
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Genius visualisation project mapping the entire tree of life into a single explorable diagram.
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One of the coolest things I've seen on the internet
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OneZoom really helps get my mind around the complexities of the tree of life.
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…simply the most useful tool for understanding phylogenetic and evolutionary relationships.
Become a sponsor...
OneZoom is a registered non-profit in the UK, all our products are available for free. 829 people like you have helped us by making donations. Their names have appeared as sponsors on 1471 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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Nicker bean
(Entada gigas)Sponsored byDeborah Robicheau -
Thomson’s gazelle
(Eudorcas thomsonii)Sponsored byLibby Hsu — San Francisco, CA -
Smooth meadow-grass
(Poa pratensis)Sponsored forJohn Green — Avowed nemesis of this plant. -
Steenbok
(Raphicerus campestris)Sponsored forCarlo Perrone — from his sister -
African giant black millipede
(Archispirostreptus gigas)Sponsored forMaia Wintle — Bishop's Stortford -
Aldabra tortoise
(Aldabrachelys gigantea)Sponsored forDominique Spillett — Bishop's Stortford, UK -
Guayaquil dwarf frog
(Engystomops pustulosus)Sponsored byHoward Kaplan — Composer of frog songs -
Crucifix frog
(Notaden bennettii)Sponsored byHoward Kaplan — Composer of frog songs -
Alpaca
(Vicugna pacos)Sponsored byDavid Ebbo -
Giant sequioa
(Sequoiadendron giganteum)Sponsored forVictoria Wright -
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 -
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
What we've been up to...
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29 September 2022
Donors can now renew their support of sponsored leaves. Sponsorships are only for a four year period, however those who do not renew will remain on our tree of life for the time being. Donors will get an e-mail reminder before their sponsored leaves expire. -
6 February 2022
OneZoom version 3.6 (nickname: musical_furry_lobster) has been officially released. We now show species occurrence (distribution) maps in the popup tabs when clicking on a species, and have instructions for how to run a bespoke OneZoom version with your own images instead of, or as well as, our own pictures. There are also a few minor changes to the tree, with a more recent arrangement of the first few (archaeal) branches, and the addition of the dodo! -
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.