[ThinkPlease]

Are you sure about the independent tree. That would be news to me.

Lemme rephrase. Independent since at least the time it was buried. I don't have the numbers in front of me, so I don't know if anyone has estimated a time of divergence, but having something that's been isolated for even several tens of millions of years is of scientific interest, I think.

[js1138]

It would be interesting to know where the subterranian bacteria fit on the tree, assuming they do. I think there's a Nobel prize for the first person to discover an independent tree of life.