Overview
Topic status: In progress
Overview
Agamid lizards, such as the bearded dragon, are thought to be closely related to iguanas. Recent analyses of mitochondrial genomes have instead found remarkable similarity between agamids and snakes (Castoe et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009).
The authors hypothesize that this represents convergent evolution of the mitochondrial proteins and metabolism between snakes and agamids.
This project will test this hypothesis against alternatives, including that:
- agamids are in fact closely related to snakes
- agamids are generally more distantly related to snakes, but share a mitochondrial lineage that was transferred from one to the other after a rare hybridization event
- the original result is an artefact of using an inappropriate model of evolution.
Research activities
- Computer analyses of evolutionary relationships (we will provide training)
- Some literature research
Expected outcomes
- An evolutionary tree of reptiles
- A short report
Duration of project
Any eight-week period over the summer vacation
- Study level
- Vacation research experience scholarship
- Supervisors
- QUT
- Organisational unit
Science and Engineering Faculty
- Research area
- Keywords
- snakes, Biogeoscience, mitochondrial, student topics, agamids, metabolism, biogeoscience
- Contact
- For more information contact the course supervisor, Matt Phillips.
Dr Matthew Phillips
