REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED.
A two day introductory course on parsimony based phylogenetic analysis in paleontology and morphological studies, for students and proffesionals, to be held at the Departamento de Ciências da Terra, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
Aim of the course: Phylogenetic analyses are a key tool for paleontologists. The aim of this course is to provide the participants the basic skills need to perform a morphological phylogenetic analysis and publish their results. The basics of parsimony analysis and character optimisation will be covered.
Target public and credits: Open to anyone but targeted to students and professionals in evolutionary biology and paleontology. Diploma will be provided by FCT-UNL. This training can be included as appendix to the graduation or master diploma (accreditation still pending).
Instructors: Miguel Moreno Azanza and Octávio Mateus (FCT- University NOVA of Lisbon)
Requirements: All participants are required to bring their own laptop. Windows strongly recommended (MacOS versions of the software available but without user interface).
Dates and contents: The course will have three sessions, each with theoretical and practical lessons, plus and an additional optional workshop session to provide assistance with the attendees’ datasets. Total hours of training: 16.
1st Day (March 12th 2016)
Session 1: Introduction to cladistic analysis using parsimony-based methods.
Introduction to systematics, basic concepts, how to build a matrix and best practices.
Session 2: Introduction to parsimony-based software.
Introduction to TNT: Editing your matrix. Basic Searches. Consensus trees. Branch support. Getting trees ready to publish.
2nd day (March 13th 2016)
Session 3: Intermediate-level use of parsimony-based software.
Continuous characters and mixed matrices. Weighting characters. New technology searchers. Constrained searches. Basic scripts. Other stuff TNT can do.
Session 4: Workshop: bring your matrix to the lab (optional).
Participants will be allowed to bring their matrices to the lab, to be examined in a collaborative approach by the class.
Language: English (translation into Portuguese is available if necessary)
Place: Departamento de Ciências da Terra, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
GPS Coordinates: 38.660734, -9.207075
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Departamento+de+Ciências+da+Terra,+DCT-FCT-UNL
Registration fees: Non student: 150 euros. Students of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Mestrado de Paleontologia and others): free. Other student: 30 euros. (student card is required). Payment is done at the beginning of the course.
Registration: Send an email to: Miguel Moreno-Azanza (mmazanza@fct.unl.pt) including your name, email, professional situation, institution and where you learn about this course.
Questions can be addressed to: mmazanza@fct.unl.pt
