The in-person portion of the meeting will be held at the Academy of Natural Sciences, BEES classroom (3rd floor).
Meeting agenda:
7:15 PM: Zoom opens
7:30-8 PM: Club business
8 PM: Presentation of the Billings Award.
Followed by Orni Studies presentation and questions (might start earlier if club business finishes earlier).
Please register for the meeting whether you will be attending in person or via Zoom. Then watch for the meeting link in your email. Disregard the meeting link if you will be attending in person.
The Billings Award will be presented to Manny Dominguez with members of Bob Billings’ family present, and Manny will give us a brief talk about his Big Year effort.
The Evolution of Haemosporidian Parasites in Birds and the Timing of Radiation of Passeriformes
Speaker: Maria Andreina Pacheco, Violet Lange
Maria Andreina Pacheco: Origin and evolution of avian haemosporidian parasites (30min).
Violet Lange: Timing the radiation of Passeriformes (20 min).
The Escalante-Pacheco lab in the Department of Biology at Temple University studies the ecology and evolutionary biology of haemosporidian parasites and their hosts. These parasites are a diverse group that includes those that cause human and bird malarias. Using statistical models (phylogenetics and molecular timing) on DNA sequences, they make inferences about these parasites’ ecology and evolutionary history in their vertebrate host, including parasite species found in lizards, birds, and mammals. They are also interested in the origin and radiation of birds and the rate and mode of evolution of the avian and parasite mitochondrial genome.
Maria Pacheco, an Assistant Professor (Research), is originally from Venezuela. She got her PhD in avian ecophysiology there, working on the growth and development of the Green-rumped Parrotlet (Forpus passerines). In the last two decades, she has focused on understanding the origin and diversification of avian blood parasites, where birds play an essential role in their evolution.
Violet Lange is a Philadelphia local doing her PhD at Temple University in the Escalante-Pacheco lab. She will discuss her research on the phylogeny of passerine birds using mitochondrial genomes, investigating the divergence times and extremely controversial evolutionary history of this avian order. Violet will further explore what passerine families see as accelerated rates of evolution and the biological factors that may be contributing.