Building Australia’s Amphibian and Reptile tree of life - Ian Brennan

An accurate estimate of the timing of diversification is important to answer many questions about the evolution of any group of interest. I'll present some current work on generating reliable timetrees for squamate reptiles (lizards & snakes) and frogs using genome-scale data, and how this can help us appreciate the accumulation of vertebrate diversity in Australia. I'll address a number of new and longstanding phylogenetic/macroevolutionary questions, with highlights including Antarctic treefrogs, social skinks, and competing goannas. Viewers are guaranteed to leave with a renewed sense of pride as custodians of the world's most squamate reptile rich country.
About Ian:
Ian is currently a Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow at the Natural History Museum, UK. Previously, he completed his PhD and an ARC postdoc across town at ANU. Ian’s work focuses primarily on the phylogenetics and macroevolution of reptiles and amphibians, and building new phylogenetic comparative methods. You can check out more of Ian’s work on his Google Scholar page, and on his website.