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Figure 2 | BMC Evolutionary Biology

Figure 2

From: A molecular timescale of eukaryote evolution and the rise of complex multicellular life

Figure 2

A timescale of eukaryote evolution. The times for each node are taken from the summary times in Table 1, except for nodes 1 (310 Ma), 2 (360 Ma), 3 (450 Ma), and 4 (520 Ma), which are from the fossil record [25]; nodes 8 (1450 Ma) and 16 (1587 Ma) are phylogenetically constrained and are the midpoints between adjacent nodes. Nodes 12–14 were similar in time and therefore shown as a multifurcation at 1000 Ma; likewise, nodes 21–22 are shown as a multifurcation at 1967 Ma. The star indicates the occurrence of red algae in the fossil record at 1200 Ma, the oldest taxonomically identifiable eukaryote [12].

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