This event is part of our ongoing Tuesday Lunch Seminar Series.

Preview: Flowering plants dominate most terrestrial ecosystems. We often want to know when different lineages diversified in different habitats, and understand the processes that enabled them to do so. These questions are often addressed in groups for which taxonomic knowledge is poor, and using necessarily limited methods. This can undermine the inferences that are made, in particular the uncertainty that surrounds them. Carruthers will discuss the methodological part of this problem, focussing in particular on its implications in large and complex clades like Ipomoea (which includes sweet potato), Saxifraga, and Ericales. Carruthers argues that despite methodological limitations, useful inferences about the origins of important traits or adaptation to different conditions can be made. Nonetheless, the power of these inferences is enhanced if taxonomic knowledge is increased, especially when analysing species level datasets.