A schematic of the process of building a unified tree of life. Inputs are published phylogenetic estimates and a unified taxonomy. These inputs are combined into a summary supertree containing over 2 million taxa. The relationships among any subset of taxa may easily be accessed and used in downstream analyses. Silhouettes from phylopic.org.  Figure from McTavish et al. 2017

 
  Part of: McTavish E, Holder M, Cranston K (2018) Nurturing a sustainable Open Tree of Life. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards 2: e25727. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.2.25727