Simon Hills

Citation

Thesis Title
The evolution of a marine gastropod genus: Rocks, clocks and convergence

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Mr Hills investigated the patterns and rates of evolution in the marine snail genus Alcithoe using DNA sequence data and comparing it to analogous data from the fossil record. He developed enhanced methods to integrate paleontological data into molecular-clock analysis of species'' divergence times and rates of evolution and found that the two datasets are generally concordant, indicating an overall increase in diversity over the Cenozoic Era. Mr Hills’ research represents significant progress toward a more thorough integration of molecular phylogenetics and palaeontology in the synthesis of evolutionary biology.

Supervisors
Professor Mary Morgan-Richards
Distinguished Professor David Penny
Professor Steven Trewick
Dr James Crampton