Macroevolution
A central question in evolutionary biology is whether morphological and genetic differentiation of species takes places gradually over time or suddenly when new species appear -a hypothesis which became known as "punctuated equilibrium".
We use computation-intensive analyses of molecular phylogenetic data to estimate rates of evolution: how often do new species appear and go extinct, how quick is evolution of different phenotypes, gene (co-)expression, gene family size, etc.
In addition we try to falsify hypotheses that could explain why evolution appears often much slower than commonly assumed.
Senior researcher
Folmer Bokma
