Phylogenetic comparative methods for studying diversification and 
phenotypic evolution (PCME01)

https://www.prstatistics.com/course/phylogenetic-comparative-methods-for-
studying-diversification-and-phenotypic-evolution-pcme01/

This course will be delivered by Dr. Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou in Glasgow 
City Centre from 5th - 8th November 2018.

Please feel free to share anywhere you see fit.

Course Overview:
Phylogenetic comparative methods are commonly used nowadays to investigate 
how species diversification occurs and to test hypotheses about the 
mechanisms that drive phenotypic evolution, e.g. to model speciation and 
extinction, to understand why some groups are more diverse than others, to 
test whether phenotypic traits have evolved under neutral, directional or 
diversifying selection, to investigate how evolutionary rates are modified 
across the evolutionary history of a group etc. In all these cases, a 
phylogenetic hypothesis for the group of interest is combined to phenotypic 
and ecological data at the species level to understand the tempo and mode 
of evolutionary change.

The objective of this course is to provide an overview of these methods and 
of the tools available for their implementation in the R statistical 
language. During theoretical sessions, we will review the main concepts and 
statistical tools necessary for testing hypotheses about species 
diversification and phenotypic evolution. These will then be implemented 
during practical's through worked examples to provide the participants with 
hands-on experience on data management and the implementation of these 
methods to real biological data.

Intended Audience
Research postgraduates, practicing academics and primary investigators in 
evolutionary ecology with interest for any kind of studies involving 
evolutionary inferences across phylogenetically related species.

Monday 29th
9:00 – 9:30: Introductions
9:30 – 10:30: Why do we need PCMs? A short history of the field
11:00 – 12:00: Testing for phylogenetic signal
13:00 – 14:00: Ancestral character reconstruction
14:30 – 17:30: PRACTICALS

Tuesday 30th
Testing hypotheses on phenotypic evolution
9:00 – 10:30: Phylogenetic independent contrasts and phylogenetic GLS
11:00 – 12:30: Phylogenetically-informed ordination
14:30 – 17:30: PRACTICALS

Wednesday 31st
Tempo and mode of evolutionary change
9:00 – 10:30: Evolutionary rates: estimation and tests
11:00 – 12:30: Models of phenotypic evolution
14:30 – 17:30: PRACTICALS

Thursday 1st
Miscellanea
9:00 – 10:30: Modelling lineage diversification
11:00 – 12:30: Future perspectives: multivariate extensions to PCMs
14:30 – 17:30: PRACTICALS

Email [email protected]
Check out our sister sites,
www.PRstatistics.com (Ecology and Life Sciences)
www.PRinformatics.com (Bioinformatics and data science)
www.PSstatsistics.com (Behaviour and cognition) 


1.      October 1st – 5th 
TIME SERIES MODELS FOR ECOLOGISTS (TSME02)
Glasgow, Dr Andrew Parnell
https://www.prstatistics.com/course/time-series-models-foe-ecologists-
tsme02/

2.      October 1st – 5th 2018
INTRODUCTION TO LINUX WORKFLOWS FOR BIOLOGISTS (IBUL03)
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Martin Jones
https://www.prinformatics.com/course/introduction-to-linux-workflows-for-
biologists-ibul03/

3.      October 8th – 12th 2018
INTRODUCTION TO FREQUENTIST AND BAYESIAN MIXED (HIERARCHICAL) MODELS 
(IFBM01)
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr Andrew Parnell
https://www.psstatistics.com/course/introduction-to-frequentis-and-bayesian-
mixed-models-ifbm01/

4.      October 15th – 19th 2018
APPLIED BAYESIAN MODELLING FOR ECOLOGISTS AND EPIDEMIOLOGISTS (ABME04)
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Matt Denwood, Emma Howard
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/applied-bayesian-modelling-ecologists-
epidemiologists-abme04/

5.      October 23rd – 25th 2018
INTRODUCTIUON TO R (This is a private ‘in-house’ course)
London, England, Dr William Hoppitt

6.      October 29th – November 2nd 2018
INTRODCUTION TO R AND STATISTICS FOR BIOLOGISTS (IRFB02)
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Olivier Gauthier
https://www.prstatistics.com/course/introduction-to-statistics-and-r-for-
biologists-irfb02/

7.      October 29th – November 2nd 2018
INTRODUCTION TO BIOINFORMATICS FOR DNA AND RNA SEQUENCE ANALYSIS (IBDR01)
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr Malachi Griffith, Dr. Obi Griffith
www.prinformatics.com/course/precision-medicine-bioinformatics-from-raw-
genome-and-transcriptome-data-to-clinical-interpretation-pmbi01/

8.      November 5th – 8th  2018
PHYLOGENETIC COMPARATIVE METHODS FOR STUDYING DIVERSIFICATION AND 
PHENOTYPIC EVOLUTION (PCME01)
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou
https://www.prstatistics.com/course/phylogenetic-comparative-methods-for-
studying-diversification-and-phenotypic-evolution-pcme01/

9.      November 19th – 23rd  2018
STRUCTUAL EQUATION MODELLING FOR ECOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGISTS 
(SEMR02)
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Jonathan Lefcheck
https://www.prstatistics.com/course/structural-equation-modelling-for-
ecologists-and-evolutionary-biologists-semr02/

10.     November 26th – 30th 2018
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY FROM ORGANISM TO ECOSYSTEM: THEORY AND COMPUTATION 
(FEER01)
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Francesco de Bello, Dr. Lars Götzenberger, Dr. 
Carlos Carmona
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/functional-ecology-from-organism-to-
ecosystem-theory-and-computation-feer01/

11.     December 3rd – 7th 2018
INTRODUCTION TO BAYESIAN DATA ANALYSIS FOR SOCIAL AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES 
USING R AND STAN (BDRS01)
Glasgow, Dr. Mark Andrews
https://www.psstatistics.com/course/introduction-to-bayesian-data-analysis-
for-social-and-behavioural-sciences-using-r-and-stan-bdrs01/

12.     January 21st – 25th 2019
STATISTICAL MODELLING OF TIME-TO-EVENT DATA USING SURVIVAL ANALYSIS: AN 
INTRODUCTION FOR ANIMAL BEHAVIOURISTS, ECOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTIONARY 
BIOLOGISTS (TTED01)
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Will Hoppitt
https://www.psstatistics.com/course/statistical-modelling-of-time-to-event-
data-using-survival-analysis-tted01/

13.     January 21st – 25th 2019
ADVANCING IN STATISTICAL MODELLING USING R (ADVR08)
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Luc Bussiere, Dr. Tom Houslay
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/advancing-statistical-modelling-using-r-
advr08/

14.     January 28th–  February 1st 2019
AQUATIC ACOUSTIC TELEMETRY DATA ANALYSIS AND SURVEY DESIGN
Glasgow, Scotland, VEMCO staff and affiliates
https://www.prstatistics.com/course/aquatic-acoustic-telemetry-data-
analysis-atda01/

15.     4th – 8th February 2019
DESIGNING RELIABLE AND EFFICIENT EXPERIMENTS FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES (DRES01) 
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Daniel Lakens
https://www.psstatistics.com/course/designing-reliable-and-effecient-
experiments-for-social-sciences-dres01/

16.     February 11th – 15th 2019
REPRODUCIBLE DATA SCIEDNCE FOR POPULATION GENETICS
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Thibaut Jombart, Dr. Zhain Kamvar
https://www.prstatistics.com/course/reproducible-data-science-for-
population-genetics-rdpg02/

17.     25th February – 1st March 2019
MOVEMENT ECOLOGY (MOVE02)
Margam Discovery Centre, Wales, Dr. Luca Borger, Prof. Ronny Wilson, Dr 
Jonathan Potts
https://www.prstatistics.com/course/movement-ecology-move02/

18.     March 4th – 8th 2019
BIOACUSTIC DATA ANALYSIS
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Paul Howden-Leach 
https://www.prstatistics.com/course/bioacoustics-for-ecologists-hardware-
survey-design-and-data-analysis-biac01/

19.     March 11th – 15th  2019
ECOLOGICAL NICHE MODELLING USING R (ENMR03)
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Neftali Sillero
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/ecological-niche-modelling-using-r-
enmr03/

20.     MARCH 18TH – 22ND 2019
INRODUCTION TO R FOR BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES (IRBM01)
Crete, Greece, Dr Aristides (Aris) Moustakas
Link to follow soon

21.     March 25th – 29th 2019
LANDSCAPE GENETIC/GENOMIC DATA ANALYSIS USING R (LNDG03)
Glasgow, Scotland, Prof. Rodney Dyer
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/landscape-genetic-data-analysis-using-r-
lndg03/

22.     A pril 1st – 5th 2019
INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICAL MODELLING FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS USING R (IPSY01)
Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Dale Barr, Dr Luc Bussierre   
http://www.psstatistics.com/course/introduction-to-statistics-using-r-for-
psychologists-ipsy02/

23.     April 8th – 12th
MACHINE LEARNING
Glasgow Scotland, Dr Aristides (Aris) Moustakas
https://www.prstatistics.com/course/machine-learning-using-r-mlur01/

Reply via email to