Unraveling the root of the metazoan tree of life has been a difficult task since the time of Haeckel and the invention of phylogenetics. Even considerable amounts of recent molecular data have not provided a generally accepted answer. Here, we review the major problems of this phylogenetic conundrum and provide some directions for solving it.

The last discoveries in the Cryptosporidium biology and phylogenetics reinforce the necessity of a exhaustive review of both life cycle and taxonomy of this parasite. Besides in vitro and in vivo studies, further molecular and genetic studies will allow to advance in the thorough knowledge of this interesting parasite.

Postprint This is the accepted version of a paper published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. This paper has been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination. Cardinal characters on a slippery slope-A re-evaluation of phylogeny, character evolution, and evolutionary rates in the jelly lichens (Collemataceae s. str.). Access to the publi...

We provide an introduction to enumerating and constructing invariants of group representations via character methods. The problem is con-textualised via two case studies, arising from our recent work: entan-glement invariants, for characterising the structure of state spaces for composite quantum systems; and Markov invariants, a robust alternative to parameter-estimation intensive methods of s...

Our view of how-many phyla relate to each other is being radically revised by molecular phylogenetics. For example, arthropods and annelids are no longer placed together, but are now considered to be in separate clades. The new tree has important ramifications for developmental biology and genomics.

The general time-reversible (GTR) model (Tavaré, 1986) has been the workhorse of molecular phylogenetics for the last decade. GTR sits at the top of the ModelTest hierarchy of models (Posada & Crandall, 1998) and, usually with the addition of invariant sites and a gamma distribution of rates across sites, is currently by far the most commonly selected model for phylogenetic inference (see Table...