Methods in Phylogenetics and Macroevolutionary Analysis
Course #: BIOL 634
Description:
Evolutionary biology is unique in the biological sciences because it is, to a large extent, a historical discipline. In the absence of direct paleontological data one of the best resources we have for studying evolutionary history over very long timescales I phylogenetic biology. In the first part of this course, students will survey the theory and application of modern phylogeny inferences. In the second part of this course, students will learn the important theory and practical methods of phylogenetic comparative biology - the use of inferred trees in evolutionary inferences. This course will consist of a combined weekly lecture & computer lab; regular computer exercises; and two independent projects in which the students may use their own dataset or one obtained from an online data repository.
Pre Requisites: Pre-requisite = Graduate degree student in Biology or permission.