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SUMMARY:Mammalian phylogeny reveals recent diversi cation rate shifts - St
 adler\, T (ETH Zrich)
DTSTART:20110623T111000Z
DTEND:20110623T113000Z
UID:TALK31842@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mustapha Amrani
DESCRIPTION:Phylogenetic trees of present-day species allow investigation 
 of the rate of evolution which led to the present-day diversity. A recent 
 analysis of the complete mammalian phylogeny challenged the view of explos
 ive mammalian evolution after the K/T boundary (65 Ma). However\, due to l
 ack of appropriate methods\, the diversication rates in the more recent pa
 st of mammalian evolution could not be determined. Here\, I provide a meth
 od which reveals that the tempo of mammalian evolution did not change unti
 l about 33 Ma. This constant period was followed by a peak of diversicatio
 n rates between 33 and 30 Ma. Thereafter\, diversication rates remained hi
 gh and constant until 8.55 Ma. Diversication rates declined signicantly at
  8.55 and 3.35 Ma. Investigation of mammalian subgroups (marsupials\, plac
 entals\, and the six largest placental subgroups) reveals that the diversi
 cation rate peak at 33-30 Ma ago is mainly driven by rodents\, cetartiodac
 tyla and marsupials. The recent diversication rate decrease is signicant f
 or all analyzed subgroups but eulipotyphla\, cetartiodactyla and primates.
  My likelihood approach is not limited to mammalian evolution. It provides
  a robust framework to infer diversication rate changes and mass extinctio
 n events in phylogenies\, reconstructed from e.g. present-day species or v
 irus data. In particular\, the method is very robust towards noise and unc
 ertainty in the phylogeny\, and can account for incomplete taxon sampling.
 \n
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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