In 1859 Charles Darwin wrote, "The affinities of all the beings of the same class have sometimes been represented by a great tree.... As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications." At the base of the evolutionary tree of all life is __________.