New approaches to understanding the forces driving convergent evolution

This project aims to address a fundamental question in evolutionary biology what drives convergent evolution of morphological phenotypes It will leverage previous ARC funded research on the phylogenetics of Australian reptiles and amphibians and apply sophisticated new methodological and analytical tools for quantifying and evaluating morphological diversity in a phylogenetic context. The expected outcome includes the rigourous testing of the influence of climate, habitat and evolutionary history on driving convergent morphological evolution across multiple independent animal groups. Australia as the best place in the World to rigourously test hypotheses concerning rates and direction of biological diversification at a continental scale.