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Haeckel's 1866 tree of life and the origin of eukaryotes

Nature Microbiology volume 1, Article number: 16114 (2016) Cite this article

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To the Editor — In their Letter describing an expanded version of the tree of life, Hug et al.1 refer to a key publication of Carl Woese and co-workers2, wherein a 16S rRNA-phylogenetic scheme of the domains Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya is shown. However, the first three-kingdom tree of life that included microorganisms was depicted by Ernst Haeckel (pictured at around 26 years old) in his General Morphology of Organisms, a seminal book that was published one hundred and fifty years ago3.

In his Origin of Species, Charles Darwin refers to the Linnean two-kingdom system, with ‘Animalia’ and ‘Vegetabilia’ as the only two branches of the living world. Haeckel3, who was also known as the German Darwin4, introduced a three-kingdom scheme in which, as a supplement to the Linnean Animalia and Plantae (synonymous with Vegetabilia), the ‘Protista’ were added5. Haeckel's protists included all microscopic organisms known at that time (Amoebozoa, Myxomycetes etc.), and, as one of its eight divisions, the ‘Monera’.

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References

  1. Hug, L. A. et al. Nature Microbiol. 1, 16048 (2016).

  2. Woese, C. R., Kandler, O. & Wheelis, M. L. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 87, 4576–4579 (1990).

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  1. Institute of Biology, University of Kassel, Kassel, D-34132, Germany

    U. Kutschera

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  1. U. Kutschera
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Correspondence to U. Kutschera.

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Kutschera, U. Haeckel's 1866 tree of life and the origin of eukaryotes. Nat Microbiol 1, 16114 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.114

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