ENTOM 3310 - [Insect Diversity and Evolution]

Fall. Next offered 2015-2016. (Offered alternate years) 3 credits.

Prerequisite: ENTOM 2120. Corequisite: ENTOM 3311.

B. N. Danforth.

This course will provide a broad overview of insect diversity, morphology, phylogeny, evolution, and fossil history. Evolution of the insects will be discussed in light of real data sets based on morphology and/or DNA sequence data. Basic principles of phylogeny reconstruction using both morphological and DNA sequence data will be presented using published data sets. Analytical methods such as parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian methods will be discussed and compared. We will also cover how phylogenies are used to analyze evolutionary patterns, such as historical biogeography, coevolution, and host-parasite relationships.

Outcome 1: 1.1 understand the issues and challenges associated with assembling phylogenetic data (e.g., homology, alignment, etc.)
1.2 understand as well as model-based methods (ML and Bayesian) of phylogeny reconstruction
1.3 understand how phylogenies can be used for ancestral state reconstruction, historical biogeography, analysis of diversification, etc.

Outcome 2: 2.1 be familiar with the controversies related to ordinal-level phylogeny of insects
2.2 know subordinal and family level phylogenies of many insect groups
2.3. know the morphological and molecular characters that support key monophyletic insect groups

Outcome 3: 3.1 read and evaluate the literature in insect phylogeny and evolution
3.2 evaluate phylogenetic results of published studies
3.3 evaluate the latest research on ongoing controversies in insect phylogeny

Outcome 4: 4.1 review the primary literature on the phylogeny of an insect clade (group) of interest to them
4.2 critically evaluate the results of previous studies based on combined morphological and molecular data sets
4.3 identify areas for future research on that group