Tree of Life of Cnidaria
The objective of the Cnidaria project is to enhance our understanding of the evolutionary history of the Phylum Cnidaria, one of the earliest branches in the animal tree of life.
Analyses will be of multiple genes and methods to safeguard against accepting a result specific to one approach. All methods lead to incorrect results under some conditions (e.g. parsimony) when evolutionary rates differ across taxa likelihood when evolutionary rates vary over time.
Finally, no one gene can be expected to provide resolution of ancient and recent phylogenetic groups. Via simultaneous analysis of many genes we seek an additive phylogenetic signal that overcomes noise that is expected to be random to that signal.
Project Researchers
Daniel Janies, Ph.D. (Lead Developer)
MaryMegan Daly, Ph.D. (Principal Investigator)
Project Funding Participation
Assembling the Tree of Life: An Integrative Approach to Investigating Cnidarian Phylogeny