Reorganizing the Tree of Life #ScientistOutLoud

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In this installment of #ScientistOutLoud, we welcome research and teaching professor Prashant Sharma from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Using morphology and genomic data, Dr. Sharma and his lab recently challenged our understanding of arachnid classification by adding horseshoe crabs to the same class as spiders and scorpions. Dr. Sharma joins us to remind us how modern classification works, describe why his team believes horseshoe crabs should be classified as arachnids, and discuss how this work showcases the process of science.

About Our Guest

Dr. Prashant Sharma is the principal investigator of the Sharma Lab in the department of Integrative Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The lab’s research broadly addresses macroevolution of invertebrates through the lenses of phylogenetics, genomics, and comparative development, with emphasis on chelicerate arthropods (from sharmalabuw.org)

Links:

• Act of ‘Heresy’ Adds Horseshoe Crabs to Arachnid Family Tree (NYTimes)
• Comprehensive Species Sampling and Sophisticated Algorithmic Approaches Refute the Monophyly of Arachnida (Molecular Biology and Evolution)
• Sharma Lab
• Prashant Sharma, Department of Integrative Biology, UW-Madison

Sean B. Carroll:

• Natural Selection and the Rock Pocket Mouse — HHMI BioInteractive Video with Sean B. Carroll
• Galapagos Finch Evolution — HHMI BioInteractive Video with Sean B. Carroll
• Lab Out Loud episode 126: Learning the Rules with Sean B. Carroll
• Lab Out Loud episode 40: Being Sen Carroll
• Lab Out Loud episode 26: Stories of Evolution
• Lab Out Loud episode 2: Biologist Sean B. Carroll
• Periodicity Episode 35: Sean B. Carroll on Evolution

Featured image “Horseshoe Crabs” by Paul VanDerWerf on Flickr is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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