Newick: group related species in parentheses; add :0.5 after a name for a branch length. Or just list species, one per line.
Paste a Newick string or simply list your species one per line, and this phylogenetic tree maker draws a clean evolutionary tree in your browser: nodes for common ancestors, tips for species, and a one-line summary of how many species and branch points the tree has. Switch to the branch-length view to see divergence to scale, then download the drawing as PNG, JPG or SVG. It is a phylogenetic tree generator for homework, slides and papers alike, with no account and nothing to install.
Newick is the text format every phylogenetics program reads. Species that share an ancestor go inside parentheses, groups nest inside groups, and a semicolon ends the tree. (((Human,Chimp),Gorilla),Orangutan); says human and chimp split most recently, gorilla branched off before them and orangutan earliest of all. Names may be quoted or use underscores for spaces, and a label written after a closing parenthesis names that ancestor.
A plain list is faster when you only know the order of relatedness. Type the species one per line, closest relatives next to each other, and the maker pairs neighbours into a balanced tree. Five names give a tree with four branch points; the generated Newick string appears under the input so you can adjust the grouping by hand.
Add :0.6 after a name or a group to give that branch a length, measured in substitutions per site, millions of years or whatever your data use. When every branch carries a length, the Branch lengths switch appears above the tree. In that view each species sits at its total distance from the root, so a tip far to the right has changed more, and two tips that line up have diverged for the same amount of time. Without lengths the tree is a cladogram: only the branching order carries meaning, and the tips align.
A tree with n species has n − 1 branch points when every split is two-way. Three or more species hanging from one node, (A,B,C), form a polytomy, an unresolved split that the maker draws as a fan.
The tree is drawn as SVG, so the PNG and JPG downloads are rendered at double resolution for slides and worksheets, and the SVG file opens in Inkscape or Illustrator for further editing. The share button copies a link containing the Newick text, and the same tree opens for anyone who follows it. For a tree that shows relationships without any lengths, the cladogram maker starts with a classic vertebrate example.
Put species that share a common ancestor inside parentheses, separate them with commas and end with a semicolon: ((Human,Chimp),Gorilla); means human and chimp are closest and gorilla joins them next. Add a colon and a number after a name or a group for its branch length, as in Human:0.6.
A cladogram shows only the order of branching, so every tip lines up at the right. A phylogram draws each branch to scale with its length, which stands for time or the amount of genetic change. The maker draws a cladogram by default and offers the branch-length view when every branch has a length.
Yes. Type one species per line and the tool pairs neighbouring names into a balanced tree. Order the list so that the species you want grouped together are next to each other, then edit the generated Newick string to refine the branching.
A blue dot is a node, the most recent common ancestor of everything to its right. A green dot is a tip, one of the species you entered. Any label you write after a closing parenthesis appears next to its node as a group name.
Choose PNG or JPG for slides and documents or SVG for editing in a vector program, then press Download. The share button copies a link that carries the tree text, so the same tree opens for anyone who follows it.