CANCELLED --- Shaoyuan Wu, Jiangsu Normal University, China: Reconstructing the Mammalian Tree of Life in the Era of Genomics --- CANCELLED

Despite significant recent progress in understanding mammalian evolution, the relationships among the various orders ofplacental mammals and the timing of their diversification in the geological past are still debated. We use a large dataset,containing genome-scale DNA sequences from representatives of all placental orders, to construct a well-supported mammalianphylogeny based on techniques that circumvent key biases rooted in properties of genomic data. Our results providea resolution to some controversial questions about mammalian phylogeny, for example by showing that flying lemursare closely related to primates. By utilizing our new phylogenetic tree in combination with 21 well-dated fossils that allowcalibration of evolutionary rates, we infer that the radiation of placental orders occurred in a rapid episode spanning theCretaceous-Paleogene (KPg) boundary. We therefore propose a new hypothesis, the trans-KPg burst model of placentaldiversification, which matches the mammalian fossil record more closely than previous “molecular clock” reconstructions.