Speaker:
Allen Rodrigo
Affiliation: University of Auckland
When: 11-12am , Thursday
14th May
.
Where: Room QA2 – Ground floor, Quadrangle Building A, Massey University (Albany Campus).
Abstract
A phylogeny (or phylogenetic tree) is a reconstruction of the evolutionary history of a group of genes, organisms or species. Modern phylogenetic methods are typically use statistical procedures to reconstruct history and to make inferences about alternative evolutionary hypotheses. In this talk, I will discuss some recent advances in the field of statistical phylogenetics. In particular, I will focus on (a) the use of phylogenies to uncover cryptic species, (b) the construction of phylogenetic supertrees, and (c) the use of phylogenetic methods in conservation.
