Exploring Biodiversity for Solutions

BioDiversity• 1,300,000 species described• Likely over 8,000,000 total

Wheeler 1990

Some tools for exploring biodiversity

• Explore trees– Target key innovations– Identify independent origins

• Target selective environments• Browse natural history records• Dig into the literature• Ask a biologist

Organizing Life• Phylogeny: hypothesized evolutionary

relationships among a group of species

http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html

Target Clades with Key Innovations

• Explore variation in that trait between environments, lineages, etc.

Gamble et al 2012 PLoS One

Identify multiple evolutionary origins

• For a particular trait • For solving a particular problem

Target Selective Environments

• Can you distill your problem into an environment organisms are adapted to?

Browse databases & natural history records

• What are certain species or lineages really “good at?”

Browse databases & natural history records

• What are certain species or lineages really “good at?”

Research the mechanism

• Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar

Ask a Biologist• We are always excited to talk about our study

organisms!• 200+ biologists at the University (CBS, CFANS)• Find a specialist for your group of interest

College of Biological Sciences website Bell Museum collections