Book description
Recent computational and modeling advances have produced methods for
estimating species trees directly, avoiding the problems and limitations
of the traditional phylogenetic paradigm where an estimated gene tree is
equated with the history of species divergence. The overarching goal of
the volume is to increase the
visibility and use of these new methods by the entire phylogenetic community
by specifically addressing several challenges: (i) firm understanding
of the theoretical underpinnings of the methodology, (ii) empirical
examples demonstrating the utility of the methodology as well as its
limitations, and (iii) attention to technical aspects involved in the
actual software implementation of the methodology. As such, this volume
will not only be poised to become the quintessential guide to training
the next generation of researchers, but it will also be instrumental in
ushering in a new phylogenetic paradigm for the 21st
century. L. Lacey Knowles
, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor/Associate Curator for the Museum of
Zoology at the University of Michigan. Her research areas include
speciation, sexual selection, phylogeography, and evolutionary
radiations. Dr. Knowles was recently awarded a three-year grant by The
National Science Foundation, titled "Population genetics of species
delimitation: Methodology and application of a unified approach to
inferring species boundaries."
Laura S. Kubatko, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor in the
Departments of Statistics and Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal
Biology. Her research interests are in statistical genetics, including
the estimation of phylogenetic trees from nucleotide sequence data,
linkage and QTL analysis, and the analysis of microarray data. She
recently became an Associate Editor for the journal Systematic
Biology, and was also elected to the Council for the Society of
Systematic Biology beginning in 2008.
