Bayesian Modeling of Morphology

Описание: LSU Computational Biology Seminar Series - Dr. April Wright, faculty from Southeastern Louisiana University, Faculty speaking on "Estimating phylogenetic trees from discrete morphological data- Modeling evolution to understand the past."

https://lbrn.lsu.edu/computational-bi...

Abstract: Phylogenetic trees display the relationships between organisms, and if scaled to absolute time, can tell a reader how long lineages have been evolving independently of one another. These trees are crucial components of comparative biological studies, and are used in analyses of organismal function, ecology, and evolution. Comparative studies of organismal and population biology often require the use of phylogenies that have been scaled to absolute time. The most important source of information to perform this scaling is the fossil record. However, most phylogenetic trees are built with DNA sequence data, whereas most fossils are known from morphological data, such as the presence or absence of a skeletal feature in a group of organisms. As fossils comprise our only direct observations of biodiversity, incorporating them into phylogenetic studies is imperative. In recent years, there have been many advances in how researchers understand the evolution of morphological traits, and how fossils can be included in phylogenetic analyses. In this talk, we will discuss models of morphological evolution, and what assumptions those models make about how morphological characters evolve. We will also discuss divergence time estimation, and how mechanistic models of diversification and fossil sampling can be used to incorporate morphological data into inference of dated phylogenies.

Bio: April Wright has been faculty at Southeastern Louisiana University since fall of 2017. Prior to this, she was a National Science Foundation Natural History Collections Postdoctoral Fellow with Drs. Tracy Heath (Iowa State University) and Corrie Moreau (The Field Museum). Her main research interest has always been the incorporation of fossil information into phylogenetic inference, though she also works on phylogenetic comparative methods, and use of phylogenetic trees to answer questions about evolution. When Dr. Wright is in the classroom, she enjoys teaching computational biology, evolution and systematics. Outside of work, Dr. Wright enjoys reading science fiction, running, and playing with her children and dogs.