Come on, three years of discussing? The ray next to the left from the red ray apparently stems from the innermore layer, just not precicely connected, coz it’s hoof-drawn. Otherwise, the northwest branch would be disconnected too )

I mean, they have both Hexapods and quadrapeds. makes sense for there to be two lines that end up flowing together.

@Phemto  
I like that idea. My HC is that Equestria is Earth in the distant future. They need the ponies to control the sun and moon because the planet would otherwise have become uninhabitable as the sun slowly entered its red giant phase.
 
One other thing: perhaps there were two origins of life in Equestria. There is no reason why there must only be one life origination.
 
I just wish this tree showed some recombination events (unless creatures like griffons, hippogriffs, and manticores are all close enough to ponies at this scale to be in the same branch)

Central region is so small just because little information survives from it. “Mundane” life developed first. Then “magic enhanced” life was developed by a poorly understood intelligence species, which shortly after succumbed to a mass extinction of its own creation. Life then diversified and proliferated again to refill all the ecological niches.

There’s something to be said for all the arguments here (except the changeling one, that’s just stupid), and I’d like to add the possibility that the separate origins could actually be because the show takes place in a multiverse.
 
But yeah, realistically just a mistake.

@Crossbow1701  
Changelings=aliens confirmed.
 
@FanOfMostEverything  
…and Discord?

@SecretTitan  
https://youtu.be/ke1YKF3tNCE

@Xidphel  
Things are not so simple in the mind of a truly devoted fan.

Could they have simply missed that part that was meant to be connected?

If I had to guess it would probably be the barrier between the magical and the mundane. Lots of Equestrian species don’t follow normal rules of biology or science (magic, mythical creatures, psionic plants), but at the same time there are more than plenty utterly mundane animals and plants. That would be easiest to explain with two origins of life, magical and not.

I see you gathered before me, hungry, terrified, clutching your foals to your chests. The Stormking has marched his legions into our lands, laid siege to every fortress from here to the Crystal Mountains. Rabid and Ravenous, he bites and bites away.
 
PONIES OF EQUESTRIA, you stand at a precipice! Your kings have failed you, so now you turn to the gods! And yet you do not PLEAD? You do not kneel to dust your heads with ash? Instead you wail, “Why have the gods foresaken us?”
 
We must look into the trials we failed long ago! In a time past, our world was intertwines with another through an upheaval called… THE CONJUNCTION OF THE SPHERES.

I didn’t notice that parts of drawing colored differently.

This seems to imply the writers are creative enough to intentionally inject this detail into the plot and this this isn’t merely an accident.

@SecretTitan  
Yeah, no. That comic still contradicts canon later on in a variety of ways.

@Crossbow1701  
Changelings, windigoes, sirens…
 
I could easily see a different branch of life that drew energy from psychic energy rather than chemical bonds in physical matter.

It could be why there is a difference between sentient/non-sentient species. Or would that be sapient? It’s a little unclear in the series just how intelligent some species of animal are…

@AlexAngel
 
Actually in the comic those pages came from it was Chrysalis herself telling the story.

I like how Fluttershy has actual substantive material to teach while every glimpse of the chalkboard in AJ’s class is just appul

@SecretTitan  
I hope someone will ask Chrysalis about her origins in the show some day. In my eyes, that comic about how changeling was made, is purely speculations from a ponys wiew. :) Changeling is a diferent spiecies, yes. But I think they have been around just as long as the ponys.

Maybe part of this diagram are the “critters” and the other part are the “folks”. I’m not sure which is which though…

 
That’s the canon origin of the changeling (and yes, the comics are canon, at least nothing that contradicts the series). So this would be counted as a point of origin, in addition to indicating that the mere presence of magic makes a new one possible today.

@Litrojia  
They knew enough to connect all other branches though. We could also see this as an argument for Equestria not being SO scientifically advanced…

@ThePonyTheorist  
I’d love to be proven wrong, but background art like this usually aren’t easter eggs. If it was, it would probably be more scientifically accurate with two branches from the center, rather than a disconnected branch like is shown here.

@Crossbow1701  
Bugs, by which I assume you mean insects, arachnids, and so on, are all actually from the same origin point as mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and so on.
 
At least as far as science can so far tell.

@Crossbow1701  

 
WOW! RACIST MUCH?