The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), here in New York, has been involved in a global effort to wrangle species and untangle the branches of the tree of life , recently published here

Key to the project was collecting species, and there seems to be an extreme story behind each one. With a gun for polar bear protection, Reinhardt Kristensen braved the frozen reaches to collect Tardigrades, while Greg Rouse obtained polychaete worms from Sperm whale carcasses and Bill Browne used rebreathers and staged decompression to dive more than 100 feet into Hawaiian waters for exotic Kinorhyncha. In Sweden a major coup was gathering the enigmatic Xenoturbella bocki by meticulous panning of flood waters, and Casey Dunn in Rhode Island was key to co-ordination and analysis. To yours truly, desk-bound, sounds like the days of Linnaeus, whose students voyaged to all corners of earth and braved mortal danger in their quest for specimens to augment his taxonomy.

Tardigrades: found to be no sister to the Arthropods (also known for surviving microwaving, freezing, boiling etc in the name of science fair projects)

Ward Wheeler at the AMNH was involved in sequence collection and analysis. Behind the frozen dioramas and the Hall of Gems, science is very much alive, and for this project, one of the largest parallel computer clusters in such an institute weighed the relationships between the selected genes from 77 species. Having come through very different types of research institutes, it was interesting talking to him about the strengths of Museum research, which include the 22 million specimen strong collection of invertebrates. He’s also involved in exhibitions you might see there. He says that one of the remarkable features of the so-called Tree of Life project has been the way marine labs, museums and Universities have played to their strengths.

The analysis supports old hypotheses, weighs in on contentious questions, and proffers unexpected new ideas about evolution. A sponge seems simple, but the question of whether it’s the simplest or simplified comes up. Meanwhile the Ctenophores (comb jellies, a collection can be seen at the AMNH) are suggested as the earliest diverging animals. Ward says such a major new conclusion will need to be followed up by further sampling in this region of the tree. So some satisfying and some challenging conclusions, and a showcase for the potential for cross-institutional analysis.

Mollusks confirmed as one big happy Phylum

Images from vicky53 and earl53 on morguefile.com