Séminaire de Russell Garwood

Résumé :

Why is sexual reproduction so common in plants, animals and fungi? Could the group’s proclivity for ecosystem modification have driven an extinction at the base of the Cambrian period? When and how did significant groups of organisms move onto land? In this talk I will highlight some projects that use fossils and/or computing to investigate these questions. I will present: recent work using individual-based simulations to understand the drivers of recombination; work using CT scanning to reveal terminal Ediacaran burrows and a simulation framework to investigate the potential impact of ecosystem engineers; the fossil record charting the terrestrialisation of arachnids; and the implications of the latest evolutionary trees of arachnids and their relatives.