[Taxacom] Geophylogeny

Wed Jun 20 08:44:44 CDT 2007

I thought it might be interesting for those of you that don't keep up 
with the botanical side of things, to hear that  at the upcoming Botany 
2007 meeting in Chicago there is a symposium that explicitly focus on 
using spatial (GIS) data as part of phylogenetic studies. If any of you 
have examples of similar approaches in the zoological realm, I would be 
happy to know more about them. The link to the symposium and its talks is:

http://www.2007.botanyconference.org/engine/search/index.php?func=session&session=C02

As mentioned below, distribution is not a character to used for 
phylogeny, but by using modern spatial techniques in tandem with modern 
phylogenetic reconstruction methods we can understand more about a 
taxon's current and past distribution as well as its ecological 
evolution through time.  This interdisciplinary field is growing, as we 
speak.

Best wishes,

Lena Struwe

John Grehan wrote:

>It's nice to see this sort of stuff as geographical information has long
>been recognized as an informative character in panbiogeography and
>geographic information is an explicit element of track analysis. 
>
>One of the web sites I viewed from the provided links mapped a phylogeny
>onto geography, but this approach still does not treat the geographic
>relationships as independently informative since they are not part of
>the tree building process (at least that's my impression and I would be
>happy to be corrected).
>
>The inheritance of location, or places as an integral element of
>inheritance has also been explicit in panbiogeography and the
>theoretical nature of the principle was discussed by Russell Gray in
>1989.
>
>John Grehan
>
>
>  
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-
>>bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Bob Mesibov
>>Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 9:28 PM
>>To: TAXACOM
>>Subject: [Taxacom] Geophylogeny
>>
>>Buried in the 19 June TAXACOM post on the Biennial Conference of the
>>Systematics Association is news of a talk to be given by David Kidd of
>>    
>>
>the
>  
>
>>National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in Durham, NC. The
>>    
>>
>talk
>  
>
>>is
>>titled "Geophylogenies: threading evolutionary graphs through earth
>>history".
>>
>>More about geophylogeny can be found on the NESCent wiki:
>>https://www.nescent.org/wg_EvoViz/Geophylogeny
>>and at
>>http://vw.indiana.edu/07netsci/entries/#evolution
>>
>>The wiki says:"In a 'geophylogeny' a phylogenetic model (tree,
>>    
>>
>network,
>  
>
>>etc)
>>is explicitly linked to spatial data describing the location of
>>    
>>
>sampled
>  
>
>>tip
>>entities and inferred nodes."
>>
>>It's refreshing to see these investigators try out an explicit,
>>transparent
>>methodology in an attempt to put the "spatio-" back into the
>>"spatiotemporal" process that we recognise as evolution. Perhaps
>>    
>>
>they'll
>  
>
>>make some headway against the following entrenched beliefs in
>>    
>>
>contemporary
>  
>
>>systematics:
>>
>>1. Geographical location is a not an informative character. In fact,
>>    
>>
>it's
>  
>
>>not a character at all. If I lose the specimen label, I have no idea
>>    
>>
>where
>  
>
>>the specimen is from. Something not inherent in the specimen obviously
>>    
>>
>has
>  
>
>>no value in systematics.
>>
>>2. Location isn't inherited, therefore it isn't part of evolution. Of
>>course, it's highly unlikely that a new species will suddenly
>>differentiate
>>thousands of kilometres from its parent species, but that's just an
>>*association*, not a real (i.e. genetic) linkage. I can't possibly use
>>mere
>>associations to inform a phylogenetic analysis, not matter how strong
>>    
>>
>they
>  
>
>>are.
>>
>>3. Evolution can be perfectly adequately represented as happening in
>>    
>>
>an
>  
>
>>abstract mathematical space. I show terminal taxa and a hypothetical
>>    
>>
>tree
>  
>
>>showing how they might be related through Time. "Time" is capitalised
>>    
>>
>here
>  
>
>>because it isn't scalar clock time, but more a sort of vector without
>>    
>>
>any
>  
>
>>magnitude. If I've got fossils and molecular clocks I might be daring
>>    
>>
>and
>  
>
>>put a few dates or durations on the branching network, but they're
>>incidental to the core hypothesis, like the baubles and tinsel I use
>>    
>>
>to
>  
>
>>decorate a Christmas tree. As for putting locations on the tree, who
>>    
>>
>wants
>  
>
>>those, except those biogeographical chaps?
>>
>>Good luck to Kidd and Price, they've got an uphill struggle ahead.
>>---
>>Dr Robert Mesibov
>>Honorary Research Associate, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
>>and School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
>>Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
>>(03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
>>
>>Australian Millipedes Checklist
>>http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/zoology/millipedes/index.html
>>Tasmanian Multipedes
>>http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/zoology/multipedes/mulintro.html
>>Spatial data basics for Tasmania
>>http://www.utas.edu.au/spatial/locations/index.html
>>Biodiversity salvage blog
>>http://biodiversitysalvage.blogspot.com/
>>---
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Taxacom mailing list
>>Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>>http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
>>    
>>
>
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>  
>

-- 
*************************************
Dr. Lena Struwe
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources/ Dept. of Plant Biology and Pathology
Rutgers University 
237 Foran Hall, 59 Dudley Road
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8551, USA
phone: (732) 932-9711 ext. 235, fax: (732) 932-9441
e-mail: struwe at aesop.rutgers.edu  
home page: www.rci.rutgers.edu/~struwe    
GENTIAN RESEARCH NETWORK: http://gentian.rutgers.edu 
Director, CHRYSLER HERBARIUM: http://herbarium.rutgers.edu