NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2012

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The availability of landmass plays a key role in the diversification of terrestrial lineages through evolutionary time. How geological dynamism affects the inference of evolutionary history of a biogeographic theater is poorly understood. To address how geological history affects a specific function of phylogenetic informativeness that is required to infer evolutionary history, a combination of (1) modeling effects of geology on simulated phylogenies; and (2) empirical hypothesis testing with phylogenies drawn from a geologically dynamic theater, Southeast Asia, is proposed. Progress on this question will inform understanding of biotic distributions and elucidate methods by which informative phylogenetic markers can be identified for individual biogeographic theaters. The relationship between geological history and phylogenetic informativeness occurs at the intersection of biology, geology, and mathematics. Addressing this problem requires both biological expertise to understand the context (taxon distribution and phylogenetic inference) and mathematical training in numerical modes of analysis.Broader impacts include development of education material suitable for both undergraduates and school groups on phylogenetic reconstruction of evolutionary history, which will incorporate a perspective on geological history informed by the results of the proposed research. Modeling and biogeography teaching modules developed for an interdisciplinary undergraduate course in the third year of the program will be freely distributed through the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the City University of New York. The proposed modeling software will be distributed for students and researchers alike through the American Museum of Natural History to explore the effects of geological events on simulated phylogenies.