The Tree of Life Consolidates

Roland Piquepaille writes "The Tree of Life is an expression first used by Charles Darwin to describe the diversity of organisms on Earth and their evolutionary history. There are only two life forms, — eukaryotes, which gather their genetic material in a nucleus, and prokaryotes, such as bacteria, which have their genetic material floating freely in the cell. Until recently, eukaryotes, which include humans, were divided into five groups. But now, based on work by European researchers, the Tree of Life has lost a branch. After doing the largest ever genetic comparison of life forms they concluded that there are only four groups of eukaryotes."

Oops, my bad

[sm62704]

I should be more careful with that chainsaw. Poor tree, only 5 branches , I hope it survives...

First we lose pluto and now we lose this.

[Anonymous Coward]

What else will science rob from us before we decide enough is enough?

Re:At the risk of being called a Tao-rrorist...

[KublaiKhan]

Is only a second-order approximation, at best, for the real Tao.

But the circle of life...

[fahrbot-bot]

...stays the same:

• Born, Live, Read /., Die

Non-geeks, substitute "Read /." with "Move Out" and "Have Sex".

Re:Science is a moving target

[A beautiful mind]

This is precisely why we believe in the guy up in the clouds who pulls the strings behind the curtains!

Oh wait...

Re:Taxonomy especially is inexact.

[Tailsfan]

THis will really screw up my AP Bio.

The Undiscovered

[Anonymous Coward]

They haven't tested Cheney yet, we'll be back to 5 types if Congress does its job.

Re:Oops, my bad

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Dude, just graft on a branch from the tree of insanity. Nobody will notice the difference.

No!

[waveformwafflehouse]

4 supergroups? [apollon.uio.no] Wait, did Journey break up? Who stopped believing!

Re:Three levels of truth (maybe more...)

[gardyloo]

Aren't all those "you can't eat this or that" rules abolished in the New Testament?

I like to think of it as a slightly newer release candidate.