The DOI matches its Crossref record; 75 of the 75 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Integrated genomic and fossil evidence illuminates life’s early evolution and eukaryote origin
Open accessAbstract
Establishing a unified timescale for the early evolution of Earth and life is challenging and mired in controversy because of the paucity of fossil evidence, the difficulty of interpreting it and dispute over the deepest branching relationships in the tree of life. Surprisingly, it remains perhaps the only episode in the history of life where literal interpretations of the fossil record hold sway, revised with every new discovery and reinterpretation. We derive a timescale of life, combining a reappraisal of the fossil material with new molecular clock analyses. We find the last universal common ancestor of cellular life to have predated the end of late heavy bombardment (>3.9 billion years ago (Ga)). The crown clades of the two primary divisions of life, Eubacteria and Archaebacteria, emerged much later (<3.4 Ga), relegating the oldest fossil evidence for life to their stem lineages. The Great Oxidation Event significantly predates the origin of modern Cyanobacteria, indicating that oxygenic photosynthesis evolved within the cyanobacterial stem lineage. Modern eukaryotes do not constitute a primary lineage of life and emerged late in Earth's history (<1.84 Ga), falsifying the hypothesis that the Great Oxidation Event facilitated their radiation. The symbiotic origin of mitochondria at 2.053-1.21 Ga reflects a late origin of the total-group Alphaproteobacteria to which the free living ancestor of mitochondria belonged.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“This is consistent with previous work suggesting that the age of LUCA is sensitive to the root calibration used19,21,27,95,96.”
From ATP synthase evolution on a cross-braced dated tree of life (2023) · cites this paper as [27]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“The LECA estimate (1.93–1.84 Ga, 95% highest posterior density) from our species tree analysis falls within published molecular clock estimates, placing LECA within a broad interval ~1–2.4 Ga25–27,97–99 (Fig. 5A, C, Supplementary Fig. 16, Supplementary Data 10).”
From ATP synthase evolution on a cross-braced dated tree of life (2023) · cites this paper as [27]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“consistent with molecular clock estimates that place the last common ancestor of extant eukaryotes between ∼1.87 and 1.68 Ga (Parfrey et al., 2011; Betts et al., 2018).”
From Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview (2021) · cites this paper as Betts et al., 2018
In the citing paper
“First, the earliest undisputed fossil evidence places life on Earth prior to 3.35 Ga [3] and molecular clocks suggest an origin prior to the late heavy bombardment >3.9 Ga [4].”
From The Future of Origin of Life Research: Bridging Decades-Old Divisions (2020) · cites this paper as [4]
In the citing paper
“Integrating fossil data with molecular evolutionary clocks has solidified evidence for the age of LUCA at >3.9 Ga [4].”
From The Future of Origin of Life Research: Bridging Decades-Old Divisions (2020) · cites this paper as [4]
In the citing paper
“Computational models allow us to test hypotheses unattainable in a laboratory alone, be it chemical conditions [22], timescales [4] or other routine perturbations to the model.”
From The Future of Origin of Life Research: Bridging Decades-Old Divisions (2020) · cites this paper as [4]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Basic local alignment search tool
Altschul, S. F., Gish, W., Miller, W., Myers, E. W., & Lipman, D. J. (1990) · Journal of Molecular Biology · doi:10.1006/jmbi.1990.9999 · Cited by 98,669
MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughput
Edgar, R. C. (2004) · Nucleic Acids Research · doi:10.1093/nar/gkh340 · Cited by 44,662
PAML 4: Phylogenetic Analysis by Maximum Likelihood
Yang, Z. (2007) · Molecular Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/molbev/msm088 · Cited by 13,879
trimAl: a tool for automated alignment trimming in large-scale phylogenetic analyses
Capella-Gutiérrez, S., Silla-Martinez, J., & Gabaldón, T. (2009) · Bioinform. · doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btp348 · Cited by 12,052
Posterior summarization in Bayesian phylogenetics using tracer 1.7
Rambaut, A., Drummond, A. J., Xie, D., Baele, G., & Suchard, M. A. (2018) · Systematic Biology · doi:10.1093/sysbio/syy032 · Cited by 11,159
Relaxed Phylogenetics and Dating with Confidence
Drummond, A. J., Ho, S. Y. W., Phillips, M. J., & Rambaut, A. (2006) · PLoS Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0040088 · Cited by 6,463
Lanfear, R., Calcott, B., Ho, S. Y. W., & Guindon, S. (2012) · Molecular Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/molbev/mss020 · Cited by 5,732
Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: The primary kingdoms
Woese, C. R., & Fox, G. E. (1977) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.74.11.5088 · Cited by 4,131
Benson, D. A., Cavanaugh, M., Clark, K., Karsch-Mizrachi, I., Lipman, D. J., Ostell, J., & Sayers, E. W. (2012) · Nucleic Acids Research · doi:10.1093/nar/gks1195 · Cited by 3,261
The rise of oxygen in Earth's early ocean and atmosphere
Lyons, T. W., Reinhard, C. T., & Planavsky, N. J. (2014) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature13068 · Cited by 2,810
A Bayesian Mixture Model for Across-Site Heterogeneities in the Amino-Acid Replacement Process
Lartillot, N., & Philippe, H. (2004) · Molecular Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/molbev/msh112 · Cited by 1,516
Evidence for life on Earth before 3,800 million years ago
Mojzsis, S. J., Arrhenius, G., McKeegan, K. D., Harrison, T. M., Nutman, A. P., & Friend, C. R. L. (1996) · Nature · doi:10.1038/384055a0 · Cited by 1,370
Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes
Spang, A., Saw, J. H., Jørgensen, S. L., Zaremba-Niedzwiedzka, K., Martijn, J., Lind, A. E., van Eijk, R., Schleper, C., Guy, L., & Ettema, T. J. G. (2015) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature14447 · Cited by 1,324
PhyloBayes 3: a Bayesian software package for phylogenetic reconstruction and molecular dating
Lartillot, N., Lepage, T., & Blanquart, S. (2009) · Bioinformatics · doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btp368 · Cited by 1,297
The energetics of genome complexity.
Lane, N., & Martin, W. (2010) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature09486 · Cited by 1,289
Asgard archaea illuminate the origin of eukaryotic cellular complexity
Zaremba-Niedzwiedzka, K., Caceres, E. F., Saw, J. H., Bäckström, D., Juzokaite, L., Vancaester, E., Seitz, K. W., Anantharaman, K., Starnawski, P., Kjeldsen, K. U., et al. (2017) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature21031 · Cited by 1,226
The Origin and Diversification of Mitochondria
Roger, A. J., Muñoz-Gómez, S. A., & Kamikawa, R. (2017) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.015 · Cited by 1,142
The physiology and habitat of the last universal common ancestor
Weiss, M. C., Sousa, F. L., Mrnjavac, N., Neukirchen, S., Roettger, M., Nelson-Sathi, S., & Martin, W. F. (2016) · Nature Microbiology · doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.116 · Cited by 1,049
Estimating the timing of early eukaryotic diversification with multigene molecular clocks
Parfrey, L. W., Lahr, D. J. G., Knoll, A. H., & Katz, L. A. (2011) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1110633108 · Cited by 899
Evidence for early life in Earth’s oldest hydrothermal vent precipitates
Dodd, M. S., Papineau, D., Grenne, T., Slack, J. F., Rittner, M., Pirajno, F., OʼNeil, J., & Little, C. T. S. (2017) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature21377 · Cited by 818
Methane metabolism in the archaeal phylum Bathyarchaeota revealed by genome-centric metagenomics
Evans, P. N., Parks, D. H., Chadwick, G. L., Robbins, S. J., Orphan, V. J., Golding, S. D., & Tyson, G. W. (2015) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aac7745 · Cited by 804
Best Practices for Justifying Fossil Calibrations
Parham, J. F., Donoghue, P. C. J., Bell, C. J., Calway, T. D., Head, J. J., Holroyd, P. A., Inoue, J. G., Irmis, R. B., Joyce, W. G., Ksepka, D. T., et al. (2012) · Systematic Biology · doi:10.1093/sysbio/syr107 · Cited by 780
Self-citation13 C-Depleted Carbon Microparticles in >3700-Ma Sea-Floor Sedimentary Rocks from West Greenland
Rosing, M. T. (1999) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.283.5402.674 · Cited by 699
Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures
Nutman, A. P., Bennett, V. C., Friend, C. R. L., Kranendonk, M. J. V., & Chivas, A. R. (2016) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature19355 · Cited by 608
Abiogenic Methane Formation and Isotopic Fractionation Under Hydrothermal Conditions
Horita, J., & Berndt, M. E. (1999) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.285.5430.1055 · Cited by 590
Evidence from fluid inclusions for microbial methanogenesis in the early Archaean era
Ueno, Y., Yamada, K., Yoshida, N., Maruyama, S., & Isozaki, Y. (2006) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature04584 · Cited by 572
FASconCAT: Convenient handling of data matrices
Kück, P., & Meusemann, K. (2010) · Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution · doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.04.024 · Cited by 550
Methylotrophic methanogenesis discovered in the archaeal phylum Verstraetearchaeota
Vanwonterghem, I., Evans, P. N., Parks, D. H., Jensen, P. D., Woodcroft, B. J., Hugenholtz, P., & Tyson, G. W. (2016) · Nature Microbiology · doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.170 · Cited by 537
An archaeal origin of eukaryotes supports only two primary domains of life
Williams, T. A., Foster, P. G., Cox, C. J., & Embley, T. M. (2013) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature12779 · Cited by 519
Self-citationMicrofossils of sulphur-metabolizing cells in 3.4-billion-year-old rocks of Western Australia
Wacey, D., Kilburn, M. R., Saunders, M., Cliff, J., & Brasier, M. D. (2011) · Nature Geoscience · doi:10.1038/ngeo1238 · Cited by 421
Pruning Rogue Taxa Improves Phylogenetic Accuracy: An Efficient Algorithm and Webservice
Aberer, A. J., Krompaß, D., & Stamatakis, A. (2012) · Systematic Biology · doi:10.1093/sysbio/sys078 · Cited by 398
Reassessing the evidence for the earliest traces of life
van Zuilen, M. A., Lepland, A., & Arrhenius, G. (2002) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature00934 · Cited by 391
Deep mitochondrial origin outside the sampled alphaproteobacteria
Martijn, J., Vosseberg, J., Guy, L., Offre, P., & Ettema, T. J. G. (2018) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0059-5 · Cited by 378
Schirrmeister, B. E., de Vos, J. M., Antonelli, A., & Bagheri, H. C. (2013) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1209927110 · Cited by 372
Endosymbiotic origin and differential loss of eukaryotic genes
Ku, C., Sathi, S. N., Roettger, M., Sousa, F. L., Lockhart, P. J., Bryant, D., Hazkani‐Covo, E., McInerney, J. O., Landan, G., & Martin, W. F. (2015) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature14963 · Cited by 353
Bayesian molecular clock dating of species divergences in the genomics era
dos Reis, M., Donoghue, P. C. J., & Yang, Z. (2016) · Nature Reviews Genetics · doi:10.1038/nrg.2015.8 · Cited by 339
Self-citationEarly photosynthetic eukaryotes inhabited low-salinity habitats
Sánchez‐Baracaldo, P., Raven, J. A., Pisani, D., & Knoll, A. H. (2017) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1620089114 · Cited by 332
Self-citationEsser, C. (2004) · Molecular Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/molbev/msh160 · Cited by 324
On the Age of Eukaryotes: Evaluating Evidence from Fossils and Molecular Clocks
Eme, L., Sharpe, S. C., Brown, M. W., & Roger, A. J. (2014) · Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology · doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a016139 · Cited by 287
Bengtson, S., Sallstedt, T., Belivanova, V., & Whitehouse, M. (2017) · PLOS Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2000735 · Cited by 284
Knoll, A. H., & Nowak, M. A. (2017) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.1603076 · Cited by 277
Microbial habitability of the Hadean Earth during the late heavy bombardment
Abramov, O., & Mojzsis, S. J. (2009) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature08015 · Cited by 269
Inoue, J. G., Donoghue, P. C. J., & Yang, Z. (2009) · Systematic Biology · doi:10.1093/sysbio/syp078 · Cited by 269
Self-citationLate acquisition of mitochondria by a host with chimaeric prokaryotic ancestry
Pittis, A. A., & Gabaldón, T. (2016) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature16941 · Cited by 259
Exploring uncertainty in the calibration of the molecular clock
Warnock, R. C. M., Yang, Z., & Donoghue, P. C. J. (2012) · Biology Letters · doi:10.1098/rsbl.2011.0710 · Cited by 238
Self-citationMethanogenesis and the Wood–Ljungdahl Pathway: An Ancient, Versatile, and Fragile Association
Borrel, G., Adam, P. S., & Gribaldo, S. (2016) · Genome Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/gbe/evw114 · Cited by 235
Integrative modeling of gene and genome evolution roots the archaeal tree of life
Williams, T. A., Szöllősi, G. J., Spang, A., Foster, P. G., Heaps, S. E., Boussau, B., Ettema, T. J. G., & Embley, T. M. (2017) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1618463114 · Cited by 233
Self-citationGenomics and the Irreducible Nature of Eukaryote Cells
Kurland, C. G., Collins, L. J., & Penny, D. (2006) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1121674 · Cited by 220
A Bangiophyte Red Alga from the Proterozoic of Arctic Canada
Butterfield, N. J. F., Knoll, A. H., & Swett, K. (1990) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.11538072 · Cited by 207
Warnock, R. C. M., Parham, J. F., Joyce, W. G., Lyson, T. R., & Donoghue, P. C. J. (2014) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.1013 · Cited by 204
Self-citationSupertrees Disentangle the Chimerical Origin of Eukaryotic Genomes
Pisani, D., Cotton, J. A., & McInerney, J. O. (2007) · Molecular Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/molbev/msm095 · Cited by 187
Self-citationCrown group Oxyphotobacteria postdate the rise of oxygen
Shih, P. M., Hemp, J., Ward, L. M., Matzke, N. J., & Fischer, W. W. (2016) · Geobiology · doi:10.1111/gbi.12200 · Cited by 174
Horizontal gene transfer constrains the timing of methanogen evolution
Wolfe, J. M., & Fournier, G. P. (2018) · Nature Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0513-7 · Cited by 160
Shih, P. M., & Matzke, N. J. (2013) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1305813110 · Cited by 151
What are the real constraints on the existence and magnitude of the late heavy bombardment?
Chapman, C. R., Cohen, B. A., & Grinspoon, D. H. (2007) · Icarus · doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2006.12.020 · Cited by 147
Fitzpatrick, D. A., Creevey, C. J., & McInerney, J. O. (2005) · Molecular Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/molbev/msj009 · Cited by 145
The hybrid nature of the Eukaryota and a consilient view of life on Earth
McInerney, J. O., O’Connell, M. J., & Pisani, D. (2014) · Nature Reviews Microbiology · doi:10.1038/nrmicro3271 · Cited by 141
Self-citationLamb, D., Awramik, S. M., Chapman, D. J., & Zhu, S. (2009) · Precambrian Research · doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2009.05.005 · Cited by 137
Combined structural and chemical analysis of 3,800-Myr-old microfossils
Pflug, H. D., & Jaeschke-Boyer, H. (1979) · Nature · doi:10.1038/280483a0 · Cited by 136
Lepot, K., Williford, K. H., Ushikubo, T., Sugitani, K., Mimura, K., Spicuzza, M. J., & Valley, J. W. (2013) · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta · doi:10.1016/j.gca.2013.03.004 · Cited by 118
Sugitani, K., Mimura, K., Nagaoka, T., Lepot, K., & Takeuchi, M. (2012) · Precambrian Research · doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2012.11.005 · Cited by 118
Sugitani, K., Lepot, K., Nagaoka, T., Mimura, K., Kranendonk, M. J. V., Oehler, D. Z., & Walter, M. R. (2010) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2010.0513 · Cited by 114
Wacey, D. (2010) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2009.0423 · Cited by 106
Two coexisting sulfur metabolisms in a ca. 3400 Ma sandstone
Wacey, D., McLoughlin, N., Whitehouse, M. J., & Kilburn, M. R. (2010) · Geology · doi:10.1130/g31329.1 · Cited by 104
Sugitani, K., Mimura, K., Takeuchi, M., Lepot, K., Ito, S., & Javaux, E. (2015) · Geobiology · doi:10.1111/gbi.12148 · Cited by 100
Lepland, A., Arrhenius, G., & Cornell, D. H. (2002) · Precambrian Research · doi:10.1016/s0301-9268(02)00106-7 · Cited by 87
Gene transfers can date the tree of life
Davín, A., Tannier, É., Williams, T. A., Boussau, B., Daubin, V., & Szöllősi, G. J. (2018) · Nature Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0525-3 · Cited by 80
Self-citationChernikova, D., Motamedi, S., Csürös, M., Koonin, E. V., & Rogozin, I. B. (2011) · Biology Direct · doi:10.1186/1745-6150-6-26 · Cited by 72
Landman, N. H., Wacey, D., & Harries, P. (2009) · Topics in geobiology · doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-9389-0 · Cited by 65
One step beyond a ribosome: The ancient anaerobic core
Sousa, F. L., Nelson-Sathi, S., & Martin, W. F. (2016) · Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics · doi:10.1016/j.bbabio.2016.04.284 · Cited by 58
Early life on Earth: a practical guide
Wacey, D. (2009) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.47-1439 · Cited by 57
Late Mitochondrial Origin Is an Artifact
Martin, W. F., Roettger, M., Ku, C., Garg, S. G., Nelson-Sathi, S., & Landan, G. (2017) · Genome Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/gbe/evx027 · Cited by 42
RelTime Rates Collapse to a Strict Clock When Estimating the Timeline of Animal Diversification
Lozano-Fernández, J., dos Reis, M., Donoghue, P. C. J., & Pisani, D. (2017) · Genome Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/gbe/evx079 · Cited by 32
Self-citationAnimal Evolution: Only Rocks Can Set the Clock
Pisani, D., & Liu, A. G. (2015) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.10.015 · Cited by 15
Self-citationCollins, A. G. (2000) · doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2000)026
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Hayes, J. M. in Early life on Earth Vol. 84, 220–236 (Columbia University Press, New York, 1994).
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Burki, F., Roger, A. J., Brown, M. W., & Simpson, A. G. B. (2020) · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1016/j.tree.2019.08.008 · Cited by 913
Nonenzymatic Metabolic Reactions and Life’s Origins
Muchowska, K. B., Varma, S. J., & Moran, J. (2020) · Chemical Reviews · doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00191 · Cited by 317
Strassert, J. F. H., Irisarri, I., Williams, T. A., & Burki, F. (2021) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-021-22044-z · Cited by 298
Self-citationA rooted phylogeny resolves early bacterial evolution
Coleman, G. A., Davín, A. A., Mahendrarajah, T. A., Szánthó, L. L., Spang, A., Hugenholtz, P., Szöllősi, G. J., & Williams, T. A. (2021) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.abe0511 · Cited by 285
Self-citationOrigin and evolution of the plant immune system
Han, G. (2018) · New Phytologist · doi:10.1111/nph.15596 · Cited by 302
Metadata
- Authors
- Betts, H. C., Puttick, M. N., Clark, J. W., Williams, T. A., Donoghue, P. C. J., & Pisani, D.
- Affiliations
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Pisani, Davide
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Ecology & Evolution
- Published
- 2018-08-20
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1556-1562
- ISSN
- 2397-334X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6152910
- OpenAlex
- W2886949501
- Cited by
- 437
- References
- 75
- Citations by year
- 2026: 38 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 65 · 2023: 60 · 2022: 53 · 2021: 62 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 44 · 2018: 7
- FWCI
- 23.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Ecology & Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- Pure (University of Bath) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (1563670, BB/N000919/1)
- Natural Environment Research Council (NE/P013678/1, NE/N003438/1, NE/P00251X/1, 1671097)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Protist diversity and phylogeny
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Keywords
- early evolution of life, eukaryotic origin, molecular clock, fossil record, last universal common ancestor, Late Heavy Bombardment, archaea, eubacteria, Great Oxidation Event, cyanobacteria, oxygenic photosynthesis, mitochondrial origin, Alphaproteobacteria, tree of life
- MeSH terms
- Archaea, Bacteria, Biological Evolution, Fossils, Genome, Eukaryota
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
