(one-celled Eukaryotes are collectively called Protista; various clading schemes have been proposed for Eukaryotes: Archaeplastida, Excavata, Opisthokonts, and S.A.R. are now the most accepted major groups, but clading within these branches is conjectured as shown; Eukaryotes began as a unique SYMBIOSIS)
Note: I had fun adding part of the Tree of Life to my tree. If any websurfer finds it useful, please send me e-mail!
Note: Parts of the tree of life are still controversial, for two reasons: (1) much evolution occurred in brief flurries like the Cambrian revolution 600 million years ago; (2) Cross-species genetic transfer (in which a species has no single clearcut ancestor), while rare, probably was responsible for many key advances. Thus plants and animals both evolved from early eukaryotes, which differentiated rapidly 1 billion years ago, after ingesting prokaryotes -- photosynthesizing prokaryotes in the case of plants, or oxidizing in the case of animals. (I even thought of using the `mother' branch of the pedigree to suggest such genetic transfers!)