Graduate Phylogenetics - Fall 2026

University of California, Merced – QSB/ES 244

A graduate course covering phylogenetic methods: theory, statistics and practice.
Syllabus

Instructor: Emily Jane McTavish

Time/Location: Lecture/Lab, Tuesday and Thursday 12 AM - 1:15 PM, SE 1 298

Web View: https://mctavishlab.github.io/GradPhylo

August 27, 2026
Class intro

September 1, 2026
HPC intro

September 3, 2026
Tree thinking exercises
The Ancestors are not among us

September 8, 2026, Tree Terms and Formats

September 10, 2026,
HPC hands on demo slurm
HPC hands on demo - salloc

September 14, 2026,
Models and Data

September 22, 2026,
Scarpetta et al. Iguanas rafted more than 8,000 km from North America to Fiji

September 22, 2026,
Data and Inference

September 24, 2026,
Chen et al. A genome-based phylogeny for Mollusca is concordant with fossils and morphology

September 29, 2026,
Likelihood
Phylo site pattern and likelihod demos

October 1, 2026,
Shultz et al. Ancient gene linkages support ctenophores as sister to other animals

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.