In: Biology
Compare viruses with living things on the phylogenetic tree of life.
Unlike, living organisms viruses are polyphyletic means do not have a single common origin. They have many evolutionary origins. When we consider viruses to be non-living then they can't be included in the tree of life because they do not share features with living cells and no single gene is shared by all the viruses or viral lineages. Among the viruses, common protein in viral capsids are shared which came through the result of convergent evolution or horizontal gene transfer. According to a hypothesis, viruses coevolved with their current cellular hosts.Thus it can be said that viruses just like bacteria evolved from an ancient cellular life form. But as animals, bacteria evolved to form complex structures while viruses became simpler. And today as we can see viruses are so small and simple that they can't even replicate on their own.