Tuesday, 24 August 2010

• Today we talked about the rapid pace at which this field is moving.  As an example, please see this figure from Hillis' chapter in Evolution Since Darwin, The First 150 Years.
• For Thursday, please read this Commentary on the rapid increase in the use of molecular data in evolutionary biology by Joshua Rest.
• For Thursday, please also read this article on what phylogenetic trees really mean and don't mean.
• Choose a date for your paper discussion and e-mail me with your preference.
  
• Begin looking for a paper involving systematics.  Choose something you like well enough that you will be happy leading a discussion on it.  As a good starting point, see the UNI Rod Library web page created for our class by Chris Neuhaus. 

Thursday, 26 August 2010

• Discuss Rest article (link above)
• Discuss Understanding Evolutionary Trees (link above)

Tuesday, 31 August 2010

• Discuss Tree Thinking for all of Biology
• Discuss Do early branching lineages signify ancestral traits?

Thursday, 2 September 2010

• Read for understanding the handout on systematics terms

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

• Discuss Kristi's paper
• Discuss Andy's paper

Thursday, 9 September 2010

• Discuss Derek's paper

Tuesday, 14 September 2010

• Discuss Katie's paper
• Discuss Dane's papers (Read this short one first and read this long one second)
  

Thursday, 16 September 2010

• Discuss Maricarmen's paper

Tuesday, 21 September 2010

• Discuss Brigid's paper

Thursday, 23 September 2010

• Discuss Michael's paper
  

Tuesday, 28 September 2010

• Discuss Matt's paper

Thursday, 30 September 2010

• Discuss Rebekah's paper

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

• Recall the bee paper we read in which they attempted to describe the center of origin for bees and to infer whether the "stem bee" was a floral specialist or a generalist?  Similar analyses have attempted to determine, for example, whether wings have evolved only once in incects or if they have arisen multiple times.  These types of assessments are important in evolutionary biology.  They are a part of trying to understand how things came to be the way they are.  
• Tuesday, we will discuss this paper on ancestral character state reconstruction.  It is > 10 years old, but it is a "classic" with 365 articles citing it (24 just this year) according to GoogleScholar.  The methods are tough!  You don't need to worry about getting all the details, and you certainly don't need to understand the equations.  You also don't need to write a summary/critique. 
• Instead of a write-up, please bring one paper published in 2007-2010 that attempts to reconstruct ancestral character states.  
• Hint:  in GoogleScholar, you can search for "ancestral state reconstruction" or something similar.  Or, in GoogleScholar, you can also see which papers in the last four years have cited this one).  In any case, make sure your example really tries to infer ancestral character states and isn't just talking about "adaptive radiations".  Be ready to explain your paper briefly.

Thursday, 7 October 2010

• Meet in MSH 151
• Bring a USB drive
• Bring an idea of an organism you might want to include in a phylogenetic a tree; unless you have some experience, it is probably a good idea to stick to some mammal and a mitochondrial gene so that I can be of some help!