Support Measures for Caulistic Macroevolutionary Transformations in Evolutionary Trees1
2014
Zander, Richard H.
Investigation of caulistic macroevolution in an evolutionary tree often requires separate support measures for exemplar groups, and for the taxon they represent. A taxon may be actually or cryptically heterophyletic on a molecular tree. Congruence between branch order of morphological and molecular cladograms is not as important as is congruence between inferred macroevolutionary transformations at the taxon level as caulistic elements on an evolutionary tree. Unsampled paraphyletic branches can affect perceived progenitor-descendant relationships and may be inserted in a molecular tree to help explain lack of congruent caulistic inferences without affecting calculated branch order. Integrable and non-integrable analyses must be combined for scientific completeness. Support for inferred macroevolutionary transformations may be estimated from either the amount of present-day paraphyly in densely sampled, related groups or from clade support and nearest neighbor interchange.
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