Crown eukaryotes
Encyclopedia
Crown eukaryotes are an artificial group of eukaryotic organisms found at the top of molecular phylogenetic trees including both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. They were originally thought to represent a late step of eukaryotic evolution (somewhat similar to a crown group
Crown group
A crown group is a group consisting of living representatives, their ancestors back to the most recent common ancestor of that group, and all of that ancestor's descendants. The name was given by Willi Hennig, the formulator of phylogenetic systematics, as a way of classifying living organisms...

) because they include multicellular and macroscopic lifeforms that represent the majority of the biomass
Biomass
Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or converted into other energy products such as biofuel....

 of the planet while accounting for less than 1% of the genetic diversity
Genetic diversity
Genetic diversity, the level of biodiversity, refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It is distinguished from genetic variability, which describes the tendency of genetic characteristics to vary....

. However, they are in fact the result of an artificial clustering of eukaryotic organisms with slowly evolving gene sequences. They are thus not a crown that excludes simpler eukaryotes, but correspond roughly to the initial radiation of eukaryotes. All eukaryotic lineages branching below the "crown" in phylogenetic trees are misplaced because of the long branch attraction
Long branch attraction
Long branch attraction is a phenomenon in phylogenetic analyses when rapidly evolving lineages are inferred to be closely related, regardless of their true evolutionary relationships. For example, in DNA sequence-based analyses, the problem arises when sequences from two lineages evolve rapidly...

phenomenon.
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