Course: Mapping Trait Evolution in R, May 2025, online
Dear colleagues, There are a few places available for the online course MAPPING TRAIT EVOLUTION. Dates and schedule: Online live sessions on May 26th, 28th, and 30th & June 2nd and 4th, 2025, from 14:00 to 18:00 (Madrid time zone). Instructor: Jeroen B. Smaers (Stony Brook University, USA). Course webpage: https://www.transmittingscience.com/courses/evolution/mapping-trait-evolution/ or writing courses at transmittingscience.com COURSE OVERVIEW The course provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art methods in mapping phenotypic trait evolution and will provide participants with a springboard to using these methods to answering their own research questions. We focus on analyses that use a phylogenetic tree and observed trait information from tip taxa (extant and/or extinct) to describe how traits have changed along the branches of a phylogeny. The course covers methods that estimate and test patterns related to changes in mean, covariation, and rate. Applications for continuous and categorical, and univariate and multivariate research designs are discussed. At the end of this course, participants will have developed an understanding of: (1) Brownian motion and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck models of evolution. (2) How these models can be applied to estimate and test patterns of trait evolution. (3) What the advantages and disadvantages are of different models/methods. (4) How to recognize which model/method is most appropriate given a particular dataset and research question. We provide several data sets that will be used to exemplify the application of these methods. We do, however, encourage participants to work with their own data so as to get direct experience with analysing precisely what they expect to analyse. Methods from the following R packages will be discussed: ape, geiger, phytools, evomap, l1ou, bayou, surface, OUwie, mvMORPH, geomorph (this list may change as new packages become available). Important note: Please bear in mind that this course is not about reconstructing (building) phylogenetic trees, the methods we cover in this course assume that a phylogeny is known. If you have any doubts or questions, do not hesitate to write to courses at transmittingscience.com Best wishes Sole
Soledad De Esteban-Trivigno, PhD Director Transmitting Science www.transmittingscience.com/courses Bluesky @soledeesteban.bsky.social X @SoleDeEsteban Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2049-0890 Under the provisions of current regulations on the protection of personal data, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 (GDPR), we inform you that personal data and email address, collected from the data subject will be used by TRANSMITTING SCIENCE SL to manage communications through email and properly manage the professional relationship with you. The data are obtained based on a contractual relationship or the legitimate interest of the Responsible, likewise the data will be kept as long as there is a mutual interest for it. The data will not be communicated to third parties, except for legal obligations. We inform you that you can request detailed information on the processing as well as exercise your rights of access, rectification, portability and deletion of your data and those of limitation and opposition to its treatment by contacting Calle Gardenia, 2 Urb. Can Claramunt de Piera CP: 08784 (Barcelona) or sending an email to info at transmittingscience.com or http://transmittingscience.com/additional-terms. If you consider that the processing does not comply with current legislation, you can complain with the supervisory authority at www. aepd.es . Confidentiality. - The content of this communication, as well as that of all the attached documentation, is confidential and is addressed to the addressee. If you are not the recipient, we request that you indicate this to us and do not communicate its contents to third parties, proceeding to its destruction. Disclaimer of liability. - The sending of this communication does not imply any obligation on the part of the sender to control the absence of viruses, worms, Trojan horses and/or any other harmful computer program, and it corresponds to the recipient to have the necessary hardware and software tools to guarantee both the security of its information system and the detection and elimination of harmful computer programs. TRANSMITTING SCIENCE SL shall not be liable. [[alternative HTML version deleted]]