Short-term Visitor

Landscape and Population Dynamics of the Cretaceous Angiosperm Radiation

PI(s): Lisa Boucher (University of Texas (Austin,TX))
Start Date: 9-Feb-2015
End Date: 10-Apr-2015
Keywords: paleontology, landscape ecology, population genetics, population genetics, computational modeling

One of the major terrestrial radiations was the diversification of flowering plants during the Cretaceous. However, less information is known about the ecological radiation of angiosperms during this time. Several scenarios have been proposed to help explain their success, however, few hypotheses have been tested. The purpose of this project is to examine the effects of varying landscape and population dynamics on major plant groups, especially angiosperms, using computer simulations from landscape genetics and data from the Cretaceous record. If successful, this would link microevolutionary processes to the large-scale macroevolutionary and ecosystem-level shifts of the major plant groups seen by the end of the Cretaceous.