Press Release – University of Canterbury Two University of Canterbury (UC) mathematicians have been granted $710,000 from Te Ptea Rangahau a Marsden, the Marsden Fund, to investigate mathematical models for extinction events in the tree of life. Using a mathematical and algorithmic framework, …
Two University of Canterbury (UC) mathematicians have been granted $710,000 from Te Pūtea Rangahau a Marsden, the Marsden Fund, to investigate mathematical models for extinction events in the tree of life. Using a mathematical and algorithmic framework, Distinguished Professor Mike Steel and Professor Charles Semple hope to address some fundamental questions in biodiversity theory and conservation.
‘Trees of life’ are used to model the evolutionary history of species and their ancestral relationships. Every time a species goes extinct, a branch is effectively lost from the tree. Mass extinction events have dramatically reshaped life on earth five times over the last 500 million ye