A collaborative project involving hundreds of experts and phylogeny enthusiasts, the “Tree of life web” project aims to construct a complete phylogenetic tree establishing all the lineages between the different organisms, past and present, on our planet, a kind of genealogical tree so to speak. “Bryophytes form an important group of plants and, in collaboration with the team of  Jonathan Shaw at Duke University, we are contributing to the collection of the necessary data relating to bryophytes in order to complete the tree”, explains Benjamin Laenen of the University of Liege. Started in 1995, the construction of this tree is taking more time than expected. “In terms of bryophytes, for example, we are experiencing problems such as the transfer of genes between very different groups. This makes the work very interesting but more complicated than we expected”, explains the researcher. As they are less frequently studied than mammals, fish or birds, bryophytes have not yet revealed all the secrets of their different kinships and their diversification over geological timescales. The recent discoveries (1) by Benjamin Laenen and his colleagues should deliver their share of answers and help to shed light on some branches of the tree of life…