Seabird Phylogenomics: Rate variation and rapid radiations

Even though the oceans cover the majority of the Earth’s surface, birds have colonized the pelagic realm only a handful of times over evolutionary history. The Procellariiformes, the largest group of truly pelagic seabirds (which includes the albatrosses, petrels, and storm petrels), are intimately tied to these habitats and demonstrate a number of striking morphological and ecological characteristics for their marine lifestyle. However, despite their charisma, their taxonomy is poorly known and many species are threatened with extinction. In this talk, I will explore how body size and life history traits are associated with variation in substitution rate, a key evolutionary parameter, as well as how integrating data sets can help to untangle rapid radiations, which often plague phylogenetic inference.

The seminar will be hosted using Zoom. A Google calendar invite featuring the Zoom link will be sent to Biology staff and students before the seminar date. For all enquiries please contact Biology DMT Hub.