There is a strong urban myth that Charles Darwin introduced and/or advocated a “Tree of Life” for the classification of living organisms. This has recently been highlighted by Lawton [1], but dates back to at least Doolittle [2]. It is often combined with the idea that we require a “paradigm shift” to take into account extensive lateral gene transfer, especially in prokaryotes. Yes, extensive lateral gene transfer occurs widely in prokaryotes (see [3]–[5]), and this enriches our understanding of evolution by emphasizing a more gene-centered view. In contrast, though acknowledging the prior availability of the tree of life simile, Darwin continually referred to his “theory of descent with modification”, an expression that encompasses a wide variety of fundamental processes including both vertical descent and lateral gene transfer, thus removing any need for paradigm shifts.
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