Evaluating Trans-Tethys Migration: An Example Using Acrodont Lizard Phylogenetics

Evaluating trans-tethys migration: an example using acrodont lizard phylogenetics.

A phylogenetic tree for acrodont lizards (Chamaeleonidae and Agamidae) is established based on 1434 bases (1041 informative) of aligned DNA positions from a 1685-1778 base pair region of the mitochondrial genome. Sequences from three protein-coding genes (ND1, ND2, and COI) are combined with sequences from eight intervening tRNA genes for samples of 70 acrodont taxa and two outgroups. Parsimony...

Evaluating Planning through Simulation: an Example Using Phoenix Colorado State University Evaluating Planning through Simulation: an Example Using Phoenix

Evaluating Planning Through Simulation: An Example Using Phoenix

For some time, planning researchers have advocated the use of simulators of "complex" environments, domains or problems [Erman, 1990, Drummond et al., 1990]. Yet, a casual survey of planning papers in the last few AAAI and IJCAI proceedings shows that Blocksworld continues to dominate as the domain of choice. Blocksworld is well-known and simple enough that many properties of planners can be de...

Identifying mechanistic models of spatial behavior using pattern-based modeling: An example from lizard home ranges

Landscape and population level patterns form through the aggregation of responses of individual organisms to heterogeneity. Spatial organization within a population can range from random overlap of individual home ranges, to completely exclusive territories, with most populations falling somewhere between these two extremes. A fundamental question in behavioral ecology concerns the factors that...

“Terror Birds” (Phorusrhacidae) from the Eocene of Europe Imply Trans-Tethys Dispersal

BACKGROUND Phorusrhacidae was a clade including middle-sized to giant terrestrial carnivorous birds, known mainly from the Cenozoic of South America, but also occurring in the Plio-Pleistocene of North America and the Eocene of Africa. Previous reports of small phorusrhacids in the Paleogene of Europe have been dismissed as based on non-phorusrhacid material. METHODOLOGY we have re-examined s...