Speaker:     Dr. EJ Huang, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Abstract:     Phylogenetics is the study of how biological entities are related to one another. In 1837, Charles Darwin sketched the first known phylogenetic tree in his notebook.  Nearly two centuries later, advances in theory, computation, and data generation have transformed phylogenetics into a quantitative framework capable of handling data at unprecedented scale and complexity.  Although evolutionary biology is often viewed as the “study of the past,” it increasingly relies on cutting-edge tools for phylogenetic reconstruction.  One could argue that any major evolutionary breakthrough almost certainly builds upon a robust phylogeny.  In this talk, I will highlight the critical role of phylogenetics in modern evolutionary research, from providing insight into the long-standing puzzle of turtle origins to tracing the fascinating expansion of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway.  I will also discuss persistent challenges in the field, particularly the difficulty of interpreting morphological data. Fossils often provide our only direct window into deep time, yet the difficulty of extracting traces of evolutionary history from their morphology is matched only by their scarcity.  Addressing these challenges represents one of the most exciting frontiers in evolutionary biology.