Dear colleague,

There are still some places available for the course  "HISTORICAL BIOGEOGRAPHY: FUNDAMENTALS AND APPLICATIONS", June 15-19, 2015.

INSTRUCTORS: Dr. Lone Aagesen (IBODA, CONICET, Argentina) and Dr. Claudia A. Szumik (Miguel Lillo Foundation, CONICET, Argentina).

PLACE:  Facilities of the Centre of Restauració i Interpretació Paleontologica, Els Hostalets de Pierola,  Barcelona (Spain).

WEBPAGE AND REGISTRATION: http://www.transmittingscience.org/courses/biog/historic-biogeography/

 

PROGRAM:

Topic 1. Historical Background:

- The connection to cladistics. Basic concepts of cladistic methods. Optimality criteria in systematics and its connection to biogeography. How to manage space.

 

Topic 2. Raw Data:

- Distribution maps. Errors in databases. Georeferencing and how to measure the error of data points.

 

Topic 3. Areas of Endemism:

- Basic concepts. Formal and informal approaches to identify areas of endemism. The importance of quantitative methods and how different methods relate to what is being evaluated.

- Optimality criterion in analyses of endemicity. Some suggestions for renaming the concept of areas of endemism. The need for a zero model. Introduction to the programs NDM/VNDM (Identification of endemism areas). Optimality, ambiguity, support, consensus in the framework of areas of endemism.

 

Topcic 4. Vicariance Events:

- Distinguishing between studying the history of taxa and studying the history of earth. Short review of different approaches for studying taxon history (ancestral areas, Diva, Brooks parsimony analysis, coevolution).

- Short review of different approaches for studying the history of earth (Brooks parsimony analysis, principal components).

- Hovenkamp’s critique of historical biogeography and his suggestions for improvement. The importance of implementing a spatial component. Optimality criterion for identifying potential barriers. Optimality, ambiguity, support, and consensus in the framework of vicariance events.

 

Software available at http://www.lillo.org.ar/phylogeny/.

 

Organized by: Transmitting Science, the Institut Catalá de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont and the Centre de Restauració i Interpretació Paleontologica de Els Hostalets de Pierola.

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With best regards