Eidothea is the only relic of one of those early lineages that has barely survived in the rainforests of eastern Australia.

Considered one of the earliest diverging lineages of fungi, the widespread genus contains 22 species.

In these half wild spotted steers the habits of an earlier lineage persist.

This group may be the earliest diverging lineage among Hydrozoa.

The earliest lineages described the lineage from Bodhidharma into the 5th to 7th generation of patriarchs.

The earliest lineages described the lineage from Bodhidharma to Huining.

The primitive body structure hinted that the Adetomyrma ants descended from one of the earliest lineages.

Many early lineages in the ancestral population are likely to have been lost, however, and it is a matter of chance which survive, Dr. Underhill said.

Early researchers even proposed that they represented an early lineage of sauropodomorphs.

If some early lineages die, later gains soon overbalance these losses.