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[Putnam]

Humans are frigging filthy.

[Gentlefish]

We're so filthy we contain as-of-yet undocumented genetic anomalies. Wow.

[Sheb]

It's not so much that as "Gene we don't know the species of". Saying it's a new branch of cellular life at this point is a stretch.

[scrdest]

It's not so much that as "Gene we don't know the species of". Saying it's a new branch of cellular life at this point is a stretch.

It's so much of a stretch the seams are bursting. Especially regarding Procaryota, the phylogenetic tree it tangled as all hell due to horizontal gene transfer.

[Sheb]

Although it wouldn't surprise me that much to have a bunch of tiny, 1- or 2-species Domains around. As things are, it always seemed to tidy for me.

[penguinofhonor]

I think the big existing evolutionary trees are because of extinction events. Life gets reduced to a few species, then things branch off of those species to fill the niches.

Although it wouldn't surprise me that much to have a bunch of tiny, 1- or 2-species Domains around.

I think we used to stick those in Protozoa, but I looked it up and apparently it doesn't exist anymore and has been split up into several clades.

[Sheb]

True, but if you look at for exemple, the phylum level within Animalia, you got a few big ones (Arthropoda, Chordata...) with millions of species, and then stuff like Placozoa or Xenoturbellida which have only a couple species each. I'm surprised that higher taxonomical levels don't share this distribution.

[scrdest]

I think the big existing evolutionary trees are because of extinction events. Life gets reduced to a few species, then things branch off of those species to fill the niches.

Although it wouldn't surprise me that much to have a bunch of tiny, 1- or 2-species Domains around.

I think we used to stick those in Protozoa, but I looked it up and apparently it doesn't exist anymore and has been split up into several clades.

That, and evolutionary advantage. A large enough leap may cause the mutant to outcompete the other organisms in the niche massively.

And Protozoa had been integrated into Protista, along with the simpler photosynthetizing organisms that used to be considered plants. But even then, Protozoa had been, universally, eucaryotic, whereas the dark matter thingies are possibly at least in part procaryotic.

[Sheb]

Yeah, we're talking Kingdom-level, not Domain-level here. And Protista is just some kind of taxonomical dump zone where you drop eukaryotes that don't have their own stockpile. Once we've reorganized things properly, I suspect we'll again have a few Kingdom with an handful of species.

[Helgoland]

Sheb, have you been bitten by Owlbread, or why do you want to split up everything?

[Frumple]

Although it wouldn't surprise me that much to have a bunch of tiny, 1- or 2-species Domains around. As things are, it always seemed [too] tidy for me.

... wouldn't you expect a system designed to be tidy to... be tidy? S'kinda' most of the point of the taxonomic system, innit? To make things look more organized?

[penguinofhonor]

Yeah, we're talking Kingdom-level, not Domain-level here. And Protista is just some kind of taxonomical dump zone where you drop eukaryotes that don't have their own stockpile. Once we've reorganized things properly, I suspect we'll again have a few Kingdom with an handful of species.

I was actually thinking of Protista originally, not Protozoa. It definitely looks like a mishmash of smaller kingdoms.

Of course, in the direction taxonomy is going, if we ever properly reorganize things I doubt we'll be using the domain/kingdom/phylum system.

Although it wouldn't surprise me that much to have a bunch of tiny, 1- or 2-species Domains around. As things are, it always seemed to

• tidy for me.

... wouldn't you expect a system designed to be tidy to... be tidy? S'kinda' most of the point of the taxonomic system, innit? To make things look more organized?

Haha, tell that to clades.

[Sheb]

Although it wouldn't surprise me that much to have a bunch of tiny, 1- or 2-species Domains around. As things are, it always seemed to

• tidy for me.

... wouldn't you expect a system designed to be tidy to... be tidy? S'kinda' most of the point of the taxonomic system, innit? To make things look more organized?

Well, it's also supposed to reflect the underlying biological reality. Which is why it's always a mess, until you create a dump taxon (like Protista).

[Sergarr]

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/18/humble-potato-poised-to-launch-food-revolution

it begins

[Moghjubar]

Saltwater potato farm is a pretty big deal.