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Phylogenetic Basis of Comparative Biology (BiSc 214)Instructor: HormigaNumber of Credits: 3 Level of instruction: graduate Description: Comparative biology studies the distribution of biological traits across different organisms (taxa) and the evolutionary origin of these traits. Comparative biology has undergone, over the last decade and a half, a major transformation. In part these changes are a result of the development of rigorous methods to study and reconstruct evolutionary relationships among organisms. The realization that species do not provide statistically independent data points in comparative analyses has also resulted in a major change in the study of comparative data. This seminar course provides a review of the current literature on the use of phylogenetic hypotheses to study questions in evolutionary biology and ecology. The course will study and discuss some the primary papers that laid the foundations of phylogenetic comparative biology, as well as some case examples from the recent literature. The focus will be on how to reconstruct and use phylogenetic relationships to study problems such as adaptation, correlated traits, behavior, or ecological associations. (See attached syllabus) How often is the course offered: Fall Semester during even years. How broad a student audience is served by the course: Graduate students from GWU (departments of Biology, Genetics, and Anthropology) and University of Maryland (Biology Department).
Lecture Syllabus
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