Scientists by Environmental Issue: Tree of Life Tracing your roots, exploring your genealogy, is a fun and fascinating endeavor. Humans seem to be innately curious about their ancestors—how they lived and where they came from. In biology, all living or extinct organisms are linked to each other, not only through countries, habitats, or food webs, but also through their genealogies. Through their genetic material—their DNA—one species splits into two, two into four, and so on and so on until the connected, beautiful, rich, and dense Tree of Life is formed. From spiders to birds and dinosaurs, learn how Field Museum scientists are participating in international collaborations to document this Tree of Life. Knowledge about the genetic relationships among all species enables us to organize and interpret patterns of biodiversity, which in turn enables us to best protect our fragile natural resources. Select which scientist you’d like to meet first: William Alverson—Neotropical Family Plants Related To Cotton Rauri Bowie—Birds Eve Emshwiller—Tubers Shannon Hackett—Birds Sabine Huhndorf—Microfungi Thorsen Lumbsch—Lichenized Fungi Greg Mueller—Macrofungi Alfred Newton—Beetles Richard Ree—Flowering Plants Olivier Rieppel—Amphibians and Reptiles Margaret Thayer—Beetles Janet Voight—Octopuses Jun Wen—Flowering Plants   back to Scientist by Environmental Issue >> Introduction | Investigate Biodiversity | YBC | Meet the Scientist | Explore Global Diversity | Events and Programs | Take Action! | Teaching Biodiversity | Biodiversity Exhibition | Credits A tree of life lets you trace the roots of life on Earth and can tell you interesting things about the earth’s history. —Shannon Hackett, Ph.D., Curator and Head, Birds The Field Museum