The evolutionary branching pattern of organisms featured in Life Under the Sun (according to J. Dacks and A. J. Roger, 1999, J Mol Evol 48, 779-783). This tree groups together related organisms and shows, for example, that the mantis shrimp and eyeless shrimp are more closely related to each other than either is to butterflies. Branch lengths do not reflect evolutionary distance.*
*The phylogency shown, reproduced exactly from Life Under the Sun, is correct but may be criticized as being "human-centric" because it places humans at the top [Nee, 2005, Nature 435:429]. A topologically identical and equally correct phylogeny could place humans at the bottom [Merchant et al, 2007, Science 318:245-50] or somewhere in the middle.
