BIOL4406 Vertebrate Zoology Assignment

Reference no: EM132985064 , Length: word count:4000 words

BIOL4406 Vertebrate Zoology Assignment - The University of Western Australia

Vertebrate Phylogeny Character Assignment - Vertebrate Phylogeny, Time tree and R ape analysis - This report for the Vertebrate Phylogeny Character assignment (25% of overall grade) involves:

Construct a phylogenetic tree of the major vertebrate lineages using TimeTree and analyse using provided R code.

This is a quite different kind of report from the one you may have done in 4405 Invertebrate Zoology.

The vertebrate phylogeny is a much simpler and more directional evolutionary progression than the invertebrate phylogeny. It makes a much "nicer and neater" evolutionary story.

You should construct a phylogeny that reflects the characters that you consider to define the evolutionary progression of the vertebrates.

You will need to decide which "vertebrate" lineages to include, based on the major evolutionary progression of the groups. This will depend on the particular suite of characters that you choose for your assignment.

You will then generate a character matrix (Excel csv file) for a few of the major evolutionary progressions to map onto your phylogenetic tree.

The first major issue that you need to deal with is the question of what is a vertebrate, and you need to include an outgroup (an invertebrate) in your vertebrate phylogeny.

Your outgroup should be as close to the base of your vertebrate lineage as possible. This means that the characters defining the evolutionary progression to vertebrates are also the basal characters that define vertebrates.

You will use TimeTree to generate a Newick file for your phylogeny.

You will then use APE (R package) to draw your phylogenetic tree.

Using the package APE in R, you will graphically map your characters onto your tree.

You will reconstruct the ancestral states using ACE (ancestral character estimation) and MPR (most parsimonious reconstruction).

Your report will describe the structure of your tree (include a figure), and a discuss the major evolutionary progressions for each branching point, for each trait.

Put your findings in a broader perspective by discussing them in a broad context using current literature.

Note - Total Word Count: 4000 + Techincal Work.

Reference no: EM132985064

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BIOL4406 Vertebrate Zoology Assignment : BIOL4406 Vertebrate Zoology Assignment Help and Solution - The University of Western Australia - Assessment Writing Service - Time tree and R ape analysis

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