Catarina Rydin
Assistant professor
Research projects
Diversity and evolution in the Gnetales and extinct relatives
My
main research interest concerns seed plant evolution, focusing on the Gnetales
and extinct relatives. I am interested in phylogeny, character evolution, and
diversity and distribution in time and space. I integrate information from
molecular data, extant morphology and fossils in order to further elucidate the
evolutionary events that resulted in present day diversity.
The
Gnetales are a small group of seed plants that comprise three distinct genera, Gnetum,
Welwitschia and Ephedra. Extant diversity is limited to
approximately 70-80 species but these species have long been suggested to be
remains of a former much more diverse clade. Pollen studies indicate a peak in
gnetalean diversity in the Early Cretaceous, simultaneously with the angiosperm
radiation, but the Gnetales declined again towards the K-T boundary
Megafossil
evidence of the Gnetales was long unknown but is now expanding rapidly. Among
recent findings are coalified seeds from Europe and North America, and
compression/impression fossils from the Crato Formation in Brazil and the
Yixian Formation in Liaoning, China. The systematic affinities of the fossils
are often uncertain, mainly due to restricted knowledge of the phylogeny and
morphology of living species.
Among
current research aims are to investigate morphological variation patterns in
living species and use the information to answer questions on trait evolution
and the timing of evolutionary events. Are there variable and phylogenetically
informative morphological characters within Ephedra, and if so, do these
characters have potential to be preserved in Early Cretaceous fossils?
Collaborators:
Peter K. Endress, Stefanie M. Ickert-Bond, Else Marie Friis, Barbara Mohr
Rubiaceae
In
collaboration with the Bremer Lab in Stockholm, I study phylogeny and evolution
in the coffee family, Rubiaceae. I am interested in relationships, biogeography
and character evolution in subfamily Rubioideae, and in relationships among
major clades of the family.
Rubiaceae
comprise more than 13,000 species, with a worldwide distribution. They are
easily recognized with their (generally) opposite branching and phylotaxis,
interpetiolar stipules and epigynous flowers. Recent studies recognise three
major lineages within Rubiaceae: subfamilies Rubioideae, Ixoroideae and
Cinchonoideae sensu Bremer et al. (1999). Several crucial questions on
evolutionary relationships within Rubiaceae have remained unanswered and
intrafamilial phylogeny and character evolution are still not fully
comprehended.
Collaborators: Sylvain Razafimandimbison, Birgitta Bremer
Pedagogy in higher education
In
connection to my teaching, I have become more and more interested in developing
pedagogy and didactics in higher education. Teaching in higher education is
often exclusively focused on the subject. Tutors are scientists, specialists in
their field of research, but generally with limited pedagogical education. When
teaching, we are concentrated on what to teach, not how to teach. However, as
more students enter Universities, perhaps with a larger spread in level of
background knowledge and motivation than used to be the case, and financial
resources are restricted, we need to reflect on our teaching in order to
maintain high quality and acceptable academic standards in the education.
My
current pedagogical research investigates students’ attitudes and opinions on
assessment. I test previous ideas on gender and age differences and implement
new parameters. Studies have indicated that “lack of interest, or poor
motivation arises from a context rather than being fixed attributes of an
individual” (Ramsden 1997, Falchikov 2005). This suggests that consideration of
students’ opinions and implementation of this knowledge could actually improve
student learning and thus post-graduate competence.
Catarina Rydin