Bridging Stratigraphic Palaeobiology and Phylogenetics

This workshop is open for applications until May 24 via the “Register” button on this page. Participation is subject to selection by the workshop organisers, and applicants will be notified of the outcome by June 10.

Stratigraphic paleobiology seeks to understand how physical processes shape the fossil record, whereas phylogenetics seeks to reconstruct evolutionary relationships, times, rates, and mechanisms. Stratigraphy is the key source of temporal information used to constrain the planet’s history and is the purview of Earth scientists. Phylogenetics, although it relies on this temporal record to reconstructed evolutionary time trees, allowing us to fill critical gaps in the fossil record, is largely the purview of biologists. This disciplinary divide, as well as limitations created by computational tools and technical skills hinders advancements in the incorporation of stratigraphic and fossil data in phylogenetics.
This workshop brings together stratigraphers, evolutionary biologists, and software engineers to advance the joint modeling of stratigraphic and phylogenetic processes to bridge this knowledge gap between earth sciences and biology.  We will establish a workflow for incorporating the geological record into phylogenetic inference, to create a roadmap for the digital infrastructure required for successful integration of geological and evolutionary data, and to translate these theoretical advances into actionable research software improvements.