Online Course – 2nd Edition
Modelling and Analysing Multivariate Traits Evolution using mvMORPH
June 7th-11th, 2021
This course will be delivered live online
Course Overview
In this workshop students will be introduced to multivariate phylogenetic comparative methods with the mvMORPH R package.
The mvMORPH package contains tools for modelling the evolution of correlated continuous traits (e.g. morphometric measurement, geometric morphometric datasets, life history traits, gene expression data, etc.) on phylogenetic trees [with either fossil species, extant species or both] as well as statistical tools such as multivariate generalized least squares (GLS) linear models -e.g. multivariate regression, MANOVA, MANCOVA – for studying comparative datasets.
In this course, students will be first introduced to some theory with illustrative examples (both from simulated data as well as students’ own datasets) and will learn how to interpret the models, their parameters, as well as how to assess their reliability.
Requirements
Graduate or postgraduate degree in Biomedical, Life or Earth Sciences. This course is not introductory, knowledge of multivariate statistics and R at user level is need it to follow the course. Familiarity with univariate phylogenetics comparative methods is highly recommended.
Participants must have a personal computer (Windows, Mac, Linux). The use of a webcam and headphones is strongly recommended, and a good internet connection.
We would like to encourage participants to bring along their own dataset with a matching phylogenetic tree (or sample of trees) to analyse between the live sessions and discuss with the instructor.