Vol. 17 No. 1 (2002)

Phylogenetic Comparative Methods in the study of birds

Abstract

In the past ten years, the realization that species are not independent evolutionary products because of their shared phylogenetic history has changed the way in which comparative studies are done. The phylogenetic comparative methods are based on the consideration that the degrees of freedom are not simply given by the number of species involved in the study but by the number of independent instances of evolution of the characters. In this review we describe three of the more frequently used methods (Phylogenetically Independent Contrasts, Concentrated-changes and Contingent-states) and show examples of their use in ornithological studies. We also discuss some of the objections made on the use of phylogenetic comparative methods, such as the lack of robust phylogenies and the problems in reconstructing ancestral character states.

References

How to cite

Bettina Mahler, Pablo L. Tubaro (2002). Phylogenetic Comparative Methods in the study of birds. El Hornero, Vol. 17 No. 1 (2002), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.56178/eh.v17i1.883

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