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Title: Rocks instead of clocks: Bayesian modelling of the fossil record enlightens the diversification and extinction of Hemiptera in deep time
Abstract: Untangling the patterns and drivers behind the diversification and extinction of highly diversified lineages remains a challenge in evolutionary biology. While insect diversification has been widely studied through the “Big Four” insect orders (Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, and Diptera), the fifth most diverse order, Hemiptera, has often been overlooked. Hemiptera exhibit a rich fossil record and are highly diverse in present-day ecosystems, with many lineages closely associated with their host plants, making them a crucial group for studying how past ecological shifts—such as mass extinctions and floral turnovers—have influenced insect diversification. This study leverages birth-death models in a Bayesian framework and the fossil record of Hemiptera to estimate their past diversity dynamics. Our results reveal that global changes in flora over time significantly shaped the evolutionary trajectories of Hemiptera. Two major faunal turnovers particularly influenced Hemiptera diversification: (i) the aftermath of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction and (ii) the Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution. Our analyses suggest that diversification of Hemiptera clades was driven by floristic shifts combined with competitive pressures from overlapping ecological niches. Leveraging the extensive fossil record of Hemiptera allowed us to refine our understanding of diversification patterns across major hemipteran lineages. We also the recently developed Bayesian Brownian Bridge model, which estimates the timing of lineage origin and extinction through fossil-based Bayesian modelling, to provide a temporal framework for the rise and fall of 310 major hemipteran lineages.
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Prof. Michael Lenhard, Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Germany
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Guest seminar hosted by CDQT.
Speaker: Prof. Jeroen van den Brink (Institute for Theoretical Solid State Physics, IFW Dresden)
Title: Topological surface superconductivity in PtBi2
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Speaker: Dr. Kenan Qu, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University
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Target audience: Interns, Students, PostDocs, and those who are interested in the same research field.
Language: English
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Speaker: Dr. Sneha Munshi, CQuERE, The Chatterjee Group Centres for Research and Education in Science and Technology, Kolkata, India
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A Seminar by Kazuhiro Nagata, Director General, JT Biohistory Research Hall, Takatsuki (Osaka). Hosted by Prof. Yamamoto.
Keywords: molecular chaperone, ER-associated degradation (ERAD), ERdj5, LLPS
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Speaker:Dr. Hiroaki Matsunami,the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, the Duke University
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Speaker: Dr. Samuël Borza, University of Vienna
Title: Ollivier-Ricci curvature in non-smooth Lorentzian geometry and causal set theory
Abstract:
This talk will explore some aspects of non-smooth Lorentzian geometry, the mathematical framework underlying Einstein’s general relativity, which is currently being developed. Just as metric length spaces provide a synthetic generalisation of smooth Riemannian manifolds, the time-separation function plays the role of a “distance” in Lorentzian geometry. The need for a non-smooth Lorentzian framework appeared early on, most famously with Penrose’s singularity theorems. After introducing the basic concepts and some initial results in this synthetic setting, we will turn to causal set theory, a radical approach to quantum gravity in which spacetime is modelled as a discrete causal graph. I will formulate a new notion of curvature, inspired by Ollivier-Ricci curvature on metric graphs, using optimal transport between causal diamonds. We will see that it does recover Ricci curvature on smooth Lorentzian manifolds, and numerical examples will be presented.