Lifemap is an interactive tool to explore the tree of life. The concept used in Lifemap is similar to the one used in cartography with tools like Google Maps© or Open Street Maps: exploring is done by zooming and panning.

 The current tree contains 802639 species: 3733 Archaea, 277426 Bacteria and 521480 Eukaryotes. It is based on the taxonomy publised by the NCBI and updated regularly.

 All the nodes in the tree are clickable. It displays information (description and picture) concerning the taxa (retrieved from the ikipedia page, if any). If you have description or pictures you would like to see in Lifemap, simply create or update the corresponding ikipedia page.

 Itineraries between taxa can be computed by clicking on the bottom right button of the main page and filling the two search fields. When filled, the route is drawn between the taxa, the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) of the two groups/species is returned. The user gets also access to a list of all the nodes that are encountered in the way from one group to the other. This list is clickable.

 Lifemap was written by Damien M. de Vienne, a CNRS researcher working in the Laboratory of Biometry and Evolutionary Biology (LBBE) in Lyon (France) with support from the informatics departement (especially Stephane Delmotte and Bruno Spattaro).