Evolution Question

[lorathon]

If evolution is to be beleived than all life came from one single celled organism. But whenever I read about evolution the talk is always about life as animals. What about plants? Plants are considered alive correct? Did plants also come from the same single celled organism? Where is the branch for that on the evolutionary tree?

Just curious if anyone knew.

 

[rossum]

If evolution is to be beleived than all life came from one single celled organism.

Correct. It may possibly have been a small population of similar one celled organisms but that is effectively the same thing.

But whenever I read about evolution the talk is always about life as animals. What about plants? Plants are considered alive correct? Did plants also come from the same single celled organism?

Yes they did. Life has three major branches - eubacteria, archea and eukaryotes. Viruses are a fourth, but they are a bit difficult to place at the moment. The eubacteria and archea are often grouped together as “bacteria” when not talking scientifically. They are very different from each other.

Eukaryotes include ourselves, all other animals, all plants and all fungi.

Where is the branch for that on the evolutionary tree?

Have a look at the Tree of Life. The root of the tree is where to start. The place where the plants, animals and fungi separate is in the eukaryotes. There is a lot of other stuff in there as well like amoebae and paramecia - one celled organisms you may have met in school. Anything with a cell nucleus is in the eukaryotes somewhere.

rossum