Paleonet: Biogeography workshop, June 15-19, Barcelona, Spain

[soledad.esteban]

Dear colleague, 
  
There are still some places available for the course  "HISTORICAL BIOGEOGRAPHY: FUNDAMENTALS AND APPLICATIONS", June 15-19, 2015. 
INSTRUCTORS: Dr. Lone Aagesen (IBODA, CONICET, Argentina) and Dr. Claudia A. Szumik (Miguel Lillo Foundation, CONICET, Argentina).

PLACE:  Facilities of the Centre of Restauració i Interpretació Paleontologica, Els Hostalets de Pierola,  Barcelona (Spain).

WEBPAGE AND REGISTRATION: http://www.transmittingscience.org/courses/biog/historic-biogeography/
 
PROGRAM:
 
Topic 1. Historical Background:
- The connection to cladistics. Basic concepts of cladistic methods. Optimality criteria in systematics and its connection to biogeography. How to manage space.
 
Topic 2. Raw Data:
- Distribution maps. Errors in databases. Georeferencing and how to measure the error of data points.
 
Topic 3. Areas of Endemism:
- Basic concepts. Formal and informal approaches to identify areas of endemism. The importance of quantitative methods and how different methods relate to what is being evaluated.
- Optimality criterion in analyses of endemicity. Some suggestions for renaming the concept of areas of endemism. The need for a zero model. Introduction to the programs NDM/VNDM (Identification of endemism areas). Optimality, ambiguity, support, consensus in the framework of areas of endemism.
 
Topcic 4. Vicariance Events:
- Distinguishing between studying the history of taxa and studying the history of earth. Short review of different approaches for studying taxon history (ancestral areas, Diva, Brooks parsimony analysis, coevolution).
- Short review of different approaches for studying the history of earth (Brooks parsimony analysis, principal components).
- Hovenkamp’s critique of historical biogeography and his suggestions for improvement. The importance of implementing a spatial component. Optimality criterion for identifying potential barriers. Optimality, ambiguity, support, and consensus in the framework of vicariance events.
 
Software available at http://www.lillo.org.ar/phylogeny/.
 
Organized by: Transmitting Science, the Institut Catalá de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont and the Centre de Restauració i Interpretació Paleontologica de Els Hostalets de Pierola. 

For more information you can write to courses at transmittingscience.org.
 
Please feel free to distribute this information between your colleagues if you consider it appropriate.
 

With best regards
Soledad De Esteban-Trivigno, PhD.
soledad.esteban at icp.cat

Researcher at the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)

Edifici Z -ICTA-ICP-  C/ de les Columnes s/n.
Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
E-08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès. Spain
www.icp.cat