Difference between revisions of "Evolution: Estimating rate of speciation and extinction in a tropical plant"
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'''Supervisor''': [[Nicolas Salamin]] | '''Supervisor''': [[Nicolas Salamin]] | ||
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Revision as of 02:22, 14 February 2009
Background: Estimating how fast species are appearing and disappearing through time and what are the factors influencing this rate, is an important aspect of evolutionary biology. This is becoming even more important given the current loss of biodiversity. Available dated phylogenetic trees of Morea, a very species-rich tropical plant genus, will be used to illustrate this type of analyses.
Goal: The goal of the project is to estimate the rate of speciation and extinction through time from Morea phylogenetic tree using a stochastic process called birth and death to model these two parameters.
Mathematical tools: The tool of choice for this project will be Maximum Likelihood estimation of model parameters. The student will use divergence time of Morea species to find the optimum rate of speciation and extinction using existing computer based analytical tools.
Biological or Medical aspects: The “biology supervisor” will provide background of the evolutionary theory of speciation and phylogenetic analysis.
Supervisor: Nicolas Salamin
(Project in Course: "Solving Biological Problems that require Math")
