A group of scientists have published an initial version of a "Tree of Life," which they claim can trace the existence of more than 2 million species ranging from microbes to plants and animals.

Phys.org reported that researchers from at least 11 universities combined their resources to try and figure out how one species separated itself from another since life started on Earth.

Like Us on Facebook

Over the years, similar studies have been published but they involved much smaller number of species. This is the first attempt so far to use a single tree to represent all life that have walked or existed on Earth.

Researchers have made their tree of life study available online. The information can be read and downloaded at https://tree.opentreeoflife.org.

Interested contributors are welcome to use and edit the site as long as certain rules set by the site administrators are followed.

A published article from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences mentioned the tree of life project.

One of the primary authors of the study, Karen Cranston, said this is the first time that scientists from various organizations have collaborated on such a huge undertaking.

Studying how species evolved and their relation to one another can enable researchers to create better medicines to combat various diseases plaguing humans today. The information can also be used to improve food production.

To save time and effort, the scientists simply gathered around 500 of the earlier published smaller tree of life studies and connected them together to create the biggest one yet.

The task involved meticulously screenings their names, which are sometimes misspelled or have incorrect abbreviations.

The researchers admit the tree of life data available online represents only a small portion of their study. Most of the data are yet encoded or are yet to be confirmed with other similar works.

Cranston said many scientists may object to some of their findings with regards to the divergence of some species.

Some species like microbes and insects have a lot of information gaps that needs to be filled. Douglas Soltis, one of the researchers, said the online release of their data, even in its incomplete state, can help the study.

Tagstree of life, divergence of species, evolution of life, species evolution, super tree, life on earth, origin of life, earth species, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, related species