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"As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications." (Darwin 1859)

Welcome:

The Gonzaga University Biology Department Tree of Life is a collection of Tree of Life entries made by students. This collection is dynamically organized by phpBB. This allows the website to provide a constantly updated database of entries. You may view, create, and edit these entries in two different ways.

You can view, create, and edit Tree of Life entries from the Tree of Life Entry Index. The Tree of Life Entry Index uses a pictorial Tree of Life based on Campbell (2002) and the Tree of Life Web Project to illustrate the complexity of life and general relationships between Tree of Life entries.

You can also view, create, and edit Tree of Life entries from the Tree of Life Forum. The Tree of Life Forum is located in the phpBB based Gonzology Forums and displays the Tree of Life entries in chronological order by post date.

For more information for teachers, students, and curious web-surfers about the Gonzaga University Biology Department Tree of Life visit the Tree of Life Info Page.

Background:

This exercise helps students develop an evolutionary framework of thought--to think of taxa as branches of phylogenetic trees. To practice this skill, students build their own tree of life using digital images. Visualizing the evolutionary connections between organisms in this way helps students become more evolutionarily literate.

Acknowledgments:

This work was supported by NSF CCLI grant # DUE0088638 to NLStaub and PGPauw.

This website is designed solely for this Tree of Life exercise; it does not allow you to draw trees or construct phylogenies from data. Contact staub@gonzaga.edu or dpauw@gonzaga.edu to arrange for the use of our tree program at your site or for specific series of exercises using the Tree of Life.

	Other Links:   Tree of Life Web Project