Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/38433

KEYWORDS : Molecular clocks;Phylogeny;Historical biogeography

Molecular clocks are proving to be very useful tools for unravelling the evolution of protistan taxa relative to geological change. Molecular clocks have been used to reconstruct the biogeographic history of non-fossilized microalgae from calibration of trees/clocks based on taxa with a fossil record. They have also been used to extrapolate back to the origin of microalgal lineages, to document the appearance of new morphotypes in the fossil record that should be recognised as new species, to estimate the timing of major evolutionary events, viz., endosymbioses and to infer possible explanations for selective survival during global change extinction events.