It’s one of the toughest tasks in biology – more difficult than sequencing the human genome.

Two Kansas University professors have received $1.6 million in grant funds to lend their expertise to the National Science Foundation’s effort to assemble the evolutionary Tree of Life.

“The Tree of Life is one of the grand challenges in science for the 21st century,” said Leonard Krishtalka, director of KU’s Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center.

The National Science Foundation five-year grant goes to Paulyn Cartwright, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and research associate at the Natural History Museum, and Daphne Fautin, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and curator at the museum. The pair will help build the marine fauna part of the tree.

“It’s an honor that the National Science Foundation considered us for this monumental project,” Cartwright said.

The tree depicts the evolutionary relationships of all living and extinct forms of life in the past 3.5 billion years of the Earth’s existence.

About 1.75 million species of organisms have been discovered, but scientists estimate that there are tens of millions more yet to be unearthed.

Cartwright and Fautin will focus on Cnidaria, a phylum that includes jellyfish, sea anemones and corals.

Kansas University professors Daphne Fautin, left, and Paulyn Cartwright study marine fauna. KU's evolutionary biologists have been awarded a .6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to trace the evolutionary paths of certain sea creatures and other animals for the Tree of Life project.

They will travel to Japan, South Africa and other places, diving or casting nets to search for specimens. And they will receive specimens from other researchers. KU will be the lead institution in this area.

Krishtalka said the coral reefs are seriously threatened, and understanding the evolutionary relationships of life forms in the reefs will give the public a better understanding of how to restore the reefs.

Other KU researchers also are working on the tree.

Michael Engel, associate professor in the ecology and evolutionary biology department and a museum curator, will focus on bees. Gloria Arratia, a research associate at the museum, will study freshwater fish. Linda Trueb, professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology and museum curator, is contributing to the study of frogs.

Cartwright and Fautin say KU’s evolutionary biologists continue their work despite the high-profile battle over the teaching of evolution in Kansas schools.

“It’s irrelevant that this is going on,” Fautin said.

Cartwright said evolutionary biologists have been successful.

“This is a nice grant,” she said. “But this is certainly not the first. KU evolutionary biologists have brought in millions of dollars.”