University of Queensland scientists uncover an 'explosion' of new life forms

The Tree of Life just got a lot bigger. University of Queensland scientists found thousands of organisms that don't actually fit into any phylum. They acquired 7,280 bacterial genomes and 623 archaeal genomes, raising the number of known genomes by nearly 10 percent. Scientist Gene Tyson, who was part of the effort, said, "The real value of these genomes is that many are evolutionarily distinct from previously recovered genomes." Related:

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