"Lizard Tales"
Katelynn Wilton
Issue date: 3/8/10 Section: News
Last Friday at 2pm, Snell featured Dr. Schulte (all the way from the Clarkson Science Center) who presented on "Lizard Tales: Understanding Evolution Using on Unconventional Organism."
His presentation lasted about an hour and covered his group's hypothesis on the evolution and organization of several reptile phylum.
Dr. Schulte began by showing a slideshow of exotic creatures, and detailing his own early interest in reptiles. He remembered being eight years old and holding up his poster that announced that he wanted to have a Ph.D. in zoology when he grew up.
From there, he began where the entire premise of evolution is thought to have begun: with Darwin. He continued to discuss the development of phylogenetic systems, which originally came in every shape and size. This lead to a discussion of Willi Hennig and his cladistic organization.
Willi Hennig had been a prisoner of war, and during this time, he developed the idea of cladistics. His work was translated to English in 1955 and contributed to the molecular revolution, which linked taxonomy and Darwin's works.
The field was further advanced in the 1980s and 1990s when major advances were made in sequencing. The revolution continued in 1983 when Kary Mullis discovered polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Dr. Schulte then turned to a closer description of his own work. He discussed how higher level squamate phylogeny, the use of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA and estimating divergence times were all uncertain within his particular area. He then proceeded to discuss six different groups of squamate reptiles, including geckos, xantusiidae, anguidae, iguania, varanidae, amphisbaenia, skinks, and snakes.
How did Dr. Schulte investigate these reptiles? Well, a picture says a thousand words, and that's probably what the audience got out of Dr. Schulte's next slide. It showed him standing on the front end of a vehicle, holding a large fishing pole and roping a lizard around the neck. The tools that Dr. Schulte used for this outing in Australia were top of the line: dental floss and an old fishing pole, both of which were shown so students could get a good glimpse up close.
Once the lizards were collected, a series of genes were used to determine how closely related different species were. The group's findings were quite similar to previous results, but did help provide an idea of some previously statistically insignificant areas.
His presentation lasted about an hour and covered his group's hypothesis on the evolution and organization of several reptile phylum.
Dr. Schulte began by showing a slideshow of exotic creatures, and detailing his own early interest in reptiles. He remembered being eight years old and holding up his poster that announced that he wanted to have a Ph.D. in zoology when he grew up.
From there, he began where the entire premise of evolution is thought to have begun: with Darwin. He continued to discuss the development of phylogenetic systems, which originally came in every shape and size. This lead to a discussion of Willi Hennig and his cladistic organization.
Willi Hennig had been a prisoner of war, and during this time, he developed the idea of cladistics. His work was translated to English in 1955 and contributed to the molecular revolution, which linked taxonomy and Darwin's works.
The field was further advanced in the 1980s and 1990s when major advances were made in sequencing. The revolution continued in 1983 when Kary Mullis discovered polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Dr. Schulte then turned to a closer description of his own work. He discussed how higher level squamate phylogeny, the use of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA and estimating divergence times were all uncertain within his particular area. He then proceeded to discuss six different groups of squamate reptiles, including geckos, xantusiidae, anguidae, iguania, varanidae, amphisbaenia, skinks, and snakes.
How did Dr. Schulte investigate these reptiles? Well, a picture says a thousand words, and that's probably what the audience got out of Dr. Schulte's next slide. It showed him standing on the front end of a vehicle, holding a large fishing pole and roping a lizard around the neck. The tools that Dr. Schulte used for this outing in Australia were top of the line: dental floss and an old fishing pole, both of which were shown so students could get a good glimpse up close.
Once the lizards were collected, a series of genes were used to determine how closely related different species were. The group's findings were quite similar to previous results, but did help provide an idea of some previously statistically insignificant areas.
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