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Nadia B. Fröbisch
Professor, Museum für Naturkunde & Department of Biology
Humboldt University, Berlin
A deep time perspective on high regenerative capacities and life history evolution in tetrapods
Abstract: Modern amphibians – frogs, salamanders and caecilians – are an amazingly diverse group, both in terms of their species numbers as well as in terms of their morphology, habitats and life history patterns. Nevertheless, they represent only of fraction of the diversity and disparity of their Paleozoic and Mesozoic relatives and many of the fascinating features of lissamphibians evolved long before the first members of our modern groups came about.
Integrating data from the fossil record and non-model taxa with the profound knowledge gained from well-established model organisms can provide new and sometimes unexpected perspectives on these features. In my talk, I will give a current deep time perspective on the evolution of the great regenerative capacities found in modern salamanders and the evolution of life history patterns in amphibians.
Host: Professor Stephanie Pierce