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Tree of life

A short animation created by students at the University of Reading to explain how all living organisms evolved from the same, single cell.

Did you know all living organisms, including you, evolved from the same, single celled microbe; the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA)? Where do microbes fit within the tree of life? Watch this animation to find out.

After you have watched the animation, move to the next Step to see some microbes in action in our 3D model. Don’t forget to ‘mark this Step as complete’ before you move on.

This animation was created by Chris Lewis, Izzy Bahrin and Raj Bhogal, undergraduate students from the University of Reading’s Typography and Graphic Communication department.


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Small and Mighty: Introduction to Microbiology

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FutureLearn - Learning For Life

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