Organizers: Werner Schwarzhans / Matt Friedman
Affiliations: Zoological Museum, Natural History Museum of Denmark / Museum of Paleontology and Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Michigan, USA
wwschwarz@aol.com
mfriedm@umich.edu
Lead contact : Werner Schwarzhans

Description : While the application of ever more extensive genetic datasets continues to transform the study of modern fish diversity, other technical and methodological innovations have similarly advanced our understanding of the deep history of fishes. Paleontology has always provided unique data and continues to add a constant stream of new data, but also new advances ranging from computed tomography to the development of ‘total-evidence’ phylogenetic approaches provide the means to extract abundant new insights from the rich fish fossil record. These analytical innovations are complemented by growing appreciation for instance of the major consequences of ancient changes in the earth’s physical past, shifting composition of reef-building organisms, and mass extinction events in shaping large-scale patterns of fish evolution. This session aims to highlight the ‘deep time’ insights that fossils can provide on phylogeny, historical ichthyology, taxonomy, biogeography, and functional anatomy.

Expected Audience : 50-100, should not compete with phylogeny session. Ichthyologists interested in phylogeny, taxonomy, historical zoology, biogeography, functional anatomy, applications of new analytical technologies, paleontologists