Bringing the Tree of Life to Life: how phylogeny guides our view of the origins and evolution of plants
An Autumn Science Lecture, by Dr James Clark
We are pleased to announce this year’s Autumn Science Lecture Series which will run between October and December. Across five online lectures, guest speakers will discuss the fascinating subject of paleobotany, exploring plant evolution and prehistoric ecosystems.
In this online event we will be joined by Dr James Clark, prize fellow and lecturer at the Milner Centre for Evolution, University of Bath. In his lecture, James will discuss ‘Bringing the Tree of Life to Life: how phylogeny guides our view of the origins and evolution of plants’.
Lecture details:
Deep in geological time, certain algae began the process of terrestrialisation and a new lineage arose: the land plants. This fundamentally shaped the Earth's own evolution and resulted in the formation of a terrestrial biosphere. Our understanding of this event relies on our ability to retrace the evolution of plants from those alive today all the way back to their earliest ancestors. This is no small task and underpinning it is the "tree of life" that describes how the major groups of plants are related to each other, from flowering plants to diminuitive mosses. James will discuss how insights from the genomics revolution, new scientific approaches and the earliest plant fossils have fundamentally shifted our view of plant evolution all the way back to the first plants.
Other speakers within the lecture series include:
▫️9th Oct| Dr Sandy Hetherington, evolutionary paleobotanist from Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
▫️23rd Oct | Dr Paul Kenrick, principal researcher in paleobotany at the Natural History Museum.
▫️6th Nov | Dr James Clark, prize fellow and lecturer at the Milner Centre for Evolution, University of Bath.
▫️20th Nov | Professor Jennifer McElwain FRS, Professor of Botany at Trinity College Dublin and Director of Trinity College Botanic Garden.
▫️4th Dec | Dr Julia Gravendyck, lecturer in systematic botany at University of Bonn.
