Evolution of Animals

How does evolution shape the phenotypes of organisms? What determines the geographical distributions of species? In order to find answers to these and related questions, the evolutionary history of organisms must be assessed. Modern molecular phylogenetics has become one of the most important tools in this context. This course is dedicated to the study of a contemporary evolutionary biology topic in a self-contained project. Participants will learn about molecular lab techniques and raw DNA sequences will be processed and subsequently used for computer-aided phylogenetic reconstruction. Based on the resulting phylogeny, aspects of the evolution of an animal group will be investigated.