Phylogeny of Mammals

One of the goals of this course unit is to synthesize concepts and knowledge acquired in animal biology (anatomy, systematics) and ecology to describe and understand the morphology and evolutionary changes in vertebrate morphology. In addition to covering extant groups, this course unit will focus heavily on extinct fossil groups, particularly their contribution to our understanding of the various eco-morphological adaptations (e.g., the acquisition or return to an aquatic lifestyle, the acquisition of flight) that have shaped the evolutionary history of clades.

This course unit also aims to provide theoretical and practical foundations in phylogenetics (cladistics) for tracing the evolution of a clade (using distance, parsimony, and likelihood methods), based on both molecular and phenotypic characters (both modern and fossil).

- HAV512H Diversity and Evolution of Present-Day and Past Metazoans N3

Responsible parties: Guillaume Guinot and Pierre-Olivier Antoine

Contact information for the person(s) in charge (phone/email): guillaume.guinot @ umontpellier.fr; pierre-olivier.antoine @ umontpellier.fr

- Understand the process by which knowledge is developed in various disciplines (hypotheses, experimental results, controversial findings, mathematical theorems, scientific facts)

- Be able to search for and extract information critically, prioritize information sources, assess their reliability, and synthesize the information

- The ability to successfully carry out a project as part of a team

- Be able to develop a logical argument using critical thinking (identifying limitations, cross-referencing with the literature, defending a point of view)