This talk describes the history of biodiversity and evolution visualizations and the current capabilities. It discusses the visualization needs of the research and education communities. It was presented at Bentley University during the MetroWest Boston Data Visualization Meetup in August of 2013.

1. Visualizing Evolution
Anne Thessen
annethessen@gmail.com

2. Nothing in biology makes
sense except in the light of
evolution.
- Theodosius Dobzhansky
(1900-1975)

3. Aristotle’s “Chain of Being”
Blooded
Humans
Live
Bearing
Egg
Layers
Bloodless
Insects Crustacea Molluscs
• Hierarchical “Ladder of Life” according to
complexity of structure and function
• Final causes drove natural processes
• Graded scale of perfection rising from plants
to humans
• Eleven grades arranged according to “the
degree to which they are infected with
potentiality”
Aristotle
384 BC to 322 BC

4. Drawing by
Franciscan
missionary, Didacus
Valades published
in Rhetorica
Christiana.
Great Chain of Being 1579
• Order imparted by omnipotent
Christian deity
• Included inanimate objects
• Humans are at the top, under
supernatural beings

5. • God created the world
perfectly, “Whatever
is, is right”
• To try to be something
we are not is to break
the chain
Ladder of Life
Humans
Viviparous Quadrupeds
Birds
Egg-laying Quadrupeds
Cetaceans
Fish
Mollusks (Cephalopods)
Crustaceans
Mollusks (Bivalves)
Jellyfish & Sponges
Higher Plants
Lower Plants
Inanimate Objects Alexander Pope
(1688-1744)
God

6. Technology Check - Microscope
• First detailed account of living
tissue based on use of
microscope was in 1644
• The word “cell” is coined by
Robert Hooke 1665
• Anton van Leeuwenhoek
describes “animalcules” in
1674-1676

7. Technology Check - Taxonomy
• Carolus Linnaeus published a comprehensive account
of all known species
• First edition 1735
• Starting point for zoological nomenclature
• Contains about 10,000 species
Carolus Linnaeus
(1707-1778)

8. Technology Check - Taxonomy
• Carolus Linnaeus published a comprehensive account
of all known species
• First edition 1735
• Starting point for zoological nomenclature
• Contains about 10,000 species
Carolus Linnaeus
(1707-1778)

9. Philosophy Check - Enlightenment
• Europe 1600s-1700s
• Lincean Academy founded 1603
• Reform society using reason
• Challenge ideas grounded in tradition and faith
• Scientific method

10. Evolution of Species by Natural Selection
Charles Darwin
(1809-1882)
On the Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection - 1859
• Species were not
created by a
supernatural
being in their
current state
• Species derive
from other species
• Humans are not
the best thing
since sliced bread

11. Haeckel’s tree of life published in
Generelle Morphologie der
Organismen (1866) with the three
branches Plantae, Protista, Animalia
Early Phylogenetic Trees
Ernst Haeckel
(1834-1919)

12. Tree from Haeckel’s Anthropogenie
oder Entwicklungsgeschichte des
Menschen published in 1874
Early Phylogenetic Trees
Ernst Haeckel
(1834-1919)

13. • Grouping species based on shared characters
• Term “clade” coined in 1940
• Imply relationship based on shared character states
• A tree is a hypothesis
Technology Check - Cladistics

14. • Digital computers invented 1940-1945
• First computer algorithms for cladistics written in
1965
• First software package for phylogenetic analysis 1980
Technology Check - Computers

15. • DNA first isolated 1869
• Frederick Griffith demonstrated that DNA carried
genetic information 1928
• Watson and Crick publish structure of DNA using
Rosalind Franklin’s images 1953
• DNA sequencing methods first developed in 1977
Technology Check - DNA

16. Trees contain information on the relative
timing of nodes only when the nodes are on
the same path from the root (i.e., when one
node is a descendant of another).
These trees depict equivalent relationships despite being different in style.
How to Read a Phylogenetic Tree
Baum. 2008. Reading a phylogenetic tree: the meaning of
monophyletic groups. Nature Education

17. How to Read a Phylogenetic Tree
Baum. 2008. Reading a phylogenetic tree: the meaning of
monophyletic groups. Nature Education
The information on patterns of evolutionary descent is the same regardless
of the lengths of branches.

18. "Evolution of patterns on Conus shells." By Zhenqiang Gong, Nicholas J. Matzke, Bard Ermentrout, Dawn Song, Jann E. Vendetti, Montgomery
Slatkin, and George Oster. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 4 January 2012.

19. Page 2012. Space, time, form: viewing the tree of life. Trends Ecol & Evol 27(2):113-120.

23. • Non-directed web shape
• Humans not at apex (there is no apex)
• Supernatural and mythological beings not included
• Mostly contains microscopic organisms
• Much more complicated, more content
• Trees are hypotheses that change due to type of
analysis

24. Earth History
http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm

25. Dendrobatidae in Amazon http://fr.academic.ru/dic.nsf/frwiki/1328251

26. Geophylogeny of
Hawaiian katydids
constructed using
GenGIS.
http://lter.limnolog
y.wisc.edu/cidimen
sions/node/56
Phylogeny Mapping Tools

27. Salamanders, GeoPh
yloBuilder
http://iphylo.blogsp
ot.com/2007/06/ear
th-not-flat-
official.html
Phylogeny Mapping Tools

28. Evolution Education
About half of Americans do not accept the reality of evolution

29. Common Evolution Misconceptions
• Everything wants to be human
• Individuals evolve
• Evolution is random
• Less complex organisms have evolved less than
more complex organisms
• Humans came from monkeys
• Microevolution is different from macroevolution
• Linnaean taxonomy = genetics

30. http://darwinbookcats.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/phylogenies-and-evolution-tree-thinking/
How Can Visualizations Help?
Time
Misconceptions
• Everything wants to be
human
• Less complex organisms
have evolved less than
more complex organisms
Legacy
• Reading from left to right
• Humans at apex

31. http://darwinbookcats.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/phylogenies-and-evolution-tree-thinking/
How Can Visualizations Help?
Time
Misconceptions
• Everything wants to be
human
• Less complex organisms
have evolved less than
more complex organisms
Legacy
• Reading from left to right
• Humans at apex

32. How Can Visualizations Help?
Misconceptions
• Modern species evolved
from other modern
species
Legacy
• Reading from left to right

33. How Can Visualizations Help?
• Research
– Show lots of information in proper context over
space and time
– Communicate uncertainty
– Quantitative and Qualitative
• Education
– More transparency
– Directly address popular misconceptions
– Design around legacy thinking

34. https://www.facebook.com/OpenTreeOfLife?hc_location=timeline
Questions?