Comparative studies of DNA in recent populations and characterisation of ancient hereditary material have contributed very interesting facts to our understanding of evolution of modern mankind. Analysis of DNA homology in related species, assessment of mutations and polymorphisms in various populations and new DNA sequence data from prehistoric finds allowed - via sophisticated DNA extraction t...

The tempo of species diversification in large clades can reveal fundamental evolutionary mechanisms that operate on large temporal and spatial scales. Hummingbirds have radiated into a diverse assemblage of specialized nectarivores comprising 338 species, but their evolutionary history has not, until now, been comprehensively explored. We studied hummingbird diversification by estimating a time...

Phylogenetic systematics seeks to describe and reconstruct the evolutionary relationships among and between organisms making use of molecular data. This field has become immensely popular in recent years, with the associated computational demands growing in leaps and bounds. Here, we review the progress made in statistical phylogenetics, compare the various methods and highlight the recent tren...

—Malagasy skinks are a poorly known group, and their relationships have not been critically evaluated previously. In this paper we present a phylogeny of Malagasy “scincine” lizards, based on quantitative phylogenetic analysis of data from seven molecular markers. Our analysis confirms the paraphyly of “Amphiglossus”, and supports Madascincus as a valid genus. Pygomeles is sister to three group...