“From Traits to Trees: Practical Phenetic and Phylogenetic Analysis”
Have you ever wondered how scientists determine the evolutionary relationships between species—or how traits are used to build trees that trace the story of life? This course offers an exciting hands-on journey into the world of phenetics and phylogenetics, where biological diversity is explored through both morphological and molecular lenses.
Designed for students passionate about systematics, biodiversity, and evolutionary biology, this course introduces the principles and practical approaches used to analyze relationships among organisms. You'll learn how to transform observed traits into numerical data matrices, construct phenetic trees (dendrograms), and retrieve and align DNA sequences from biological databases. Most importantly, you’ll gain practical experience with computational tools and software used to perform both phenetic and phylogenetic analyses.
By the end of the course, you will be able to build and interpret your own evolutionary trees—from morphology-based clustering to DNA-based phylogenies—developing a deeper understanding of how modern taxonomy integrates data to unravel the history of life.
Whether you're a budding botanist, a curious zoologist, or an aspiring bioinformatician, this course equips you with the essential skills and conceptual clarity needed for research in modern systematics.
- Teacher: Sreehari s nair