The maturation of genetic analysis tools (molecular such as DNA sequencing, and computational) has equipped biological taxonomists tremendously in recent years, and has led to a spur of research publications that aim to unravel the evolutionary history of species and subspecies, their genera and families. These publications often include data/illustrations known as phylogenetic trees (phylotrees), which can be seen as subtrees of the tree of life that sketch the evolutionary history of the studied group of life forms. Such trees can, under certain assumptions, also be used as evolutionary clock.
For recent evolutionary developments, say of the last 15 million years, one may postulate that that history shows traces in today’s distribution of the studied life forms. Species evolution is influenced by events on the geologic time scale, such as climate change, sea level drops and rises, and plate tectonics. Biogeographers hope and expect to link species formation events (e.g., nodes in a phylotree) to such geological events.
The illustration above comes from Liu et al., 2016; it suggests linkages between the two displays. Papers of this type often tell stories that sketch possible history; we want to bring those stories to the visuals. The primary aim of this proposed project is to develop a tool for the dual visualization of this type of illustration, with a phylotree in one display and a map in the other, that aims to support biogeographic analysis work.
Specifically, we foresee uses in which
• One can select a node (and thus a point in time) in the phylotree with the aim to study and select only the life forms within it,
• One can use a time slider over the phylotree and view a possible geographic distribution at the chosen time,
• Effects of climate variability, sea level variation and plate tectonics are displayed in the map as the chosen time varies,
• Alternative phylotrees, representing alternative evolutionary scenarios, can be loaded for visual inspection and scrutiny.
The project will aim to understand biogeography’s analytic needs, and will also study the technology required to build the dual displays here suggested. Successful completion of the project will include a requirements analysis, a technical study and technology selection, as well as an implementation in an online biogeographic website.
Experimental range data is available; we aim to look into availability of paleographic data also.