Beyond the age of fishes: Assembling the other half of vertebrate diversity 

　　在人们的传统印象中，“鱼类时代”位于久远的泥盆纪，而今天的鱼类是低等而古老的脊椎动物。然而实际上，今天占脊椎动物物种数一半的鱼类在“鱼类时代”之后，仍然拥有与鸟类和哺乳动物同样丰富多彩的分异度和曲折多变的演化史。本次讲座将介绍一系列从分子生物学、古环境学和古生物学角度取得的最近的研究成果，展现中生代和新生代非四足类水生脊椎动物各支系几个大的演化事件，同时介绍若干现代古生物学研究所通用的手段方法。 

　　The modern day is often caricatured by vertebrate biologists and paleontologists as the ‘Age of Mammals’, remote from the ‘Age of Fishes’ of the Devonian Period more than 350 million years ago.  This reinforces a common perception that living fishes, which collectively constitute half of all living backboned animals, have exceptionally deep evolutionary roots. However, a substantial fraction of diversity in this other half of the vertebrate tree of life was generated on a timescale comparable to that in birds and mammals. Drawing on the clues locked in genomes, skeletons, and rocks, this talk will explore the origins of diversity in fishes at phylogenetic scales ranging from individual specialized lineages to hyperdiverse radiations containing several thousand species. The talk will show how quantitative approaches to evolutionary questions in ‘deep time’ highlight potential effects of major events in earth history on the assembly of the modern fauna, and illustrate how cutting-edge techniques are providing us with an unprecedented view of diversity deep within the geological record.

　　【主讲人】 Matt Friedman， 

　　1980年生，于芝加哥大学取得博士学位，现任牛津大学讲师。致力于研究鱼类演化史，研究对象跨越古、中、新生代鱼类，研究角度和手段包括同步辐射和高精度CT扫描、生物力学、统计学等，已发表相关学术论文40余篇。 

　　【时间】8月1日（星期五）上午9：30  August 1st（Friday）9:30 a.m. 

　　【地点】602 谈古斋 Room 602, Evo-devo Corner 

　　欢迎老师、同学们参加！ 

                                                             脊椎动物演化与人类起源重点实验室

                                                                        2014.7.29