An overview of the phylogeny and diversity of eukaryotes

• Our understanding of eukaryote biology is dominated by the study of land plants, animals and fungi. However, these are only three isolated fragments of the full diversity of extant eukaryotes. The majority of eukaryotes, in terms of major taxa and probably also sheer numbers of cells, consists of exclusively or predominantly unicellular lineages. A surprising number of these lineages are poorly characterized. Nonetheless, they are fundamental to our understanding of eukaryote biology and the underlying forces that shaped it. This article consists of an overview of the current state of our understanding of the eukaryote tree. This includes the identity of the major groups of eukaryotes, some of their important, defining or simply interesting features and the proposed relationships of these groups to each other.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

biodiversity

eukaryotes

molecular evolution

phylogeny

systematics

tree of life

Biology

Biologi

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)