Recognizing the forest for the trees: testing temporal patterns of cladogenesis using a null model of stochastic diversification |
| |
Authors: | Wollenberg K; Arnold J; Avise JC |
| |
Institution: | Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens 30602, USA. wollenberg@bscr.uga.edu |
| |
Abstract: | Computer simulations are developed and employed to examine the expected
temporal distributions of nodes under a null model of stochastic lineage
bifurcation and extinction. These Markovian models of phylogenetic process
were constructed so as to permit direct comparisons against empirical
phylogenetic trees generated from molecular or other information available
solely from extant species. For replicate simulated phylads with n extant
species, cumulative distribution functions (cdf's) of branching times were
calculated, and compared (using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test statistic D) to
those from three published empirical trees. Molecular phylogenies for
columbine plants and avian cranes showed statistically significant
departures from the null expectations, in directions indicating recent and
ancient species' radiations, respectively, whereas a molecular phylogeny
for the Drosophila virilis species group showed no apparent historical
clustering of branching events. Effects of outgroup choice and phylogenetic
frame of reference were investigated for the columbines and found to have a
predictable influence on the types of conclusions to be drawn from such
analyses. To enable other investigators to statistically test for
nonrandomness in temporal cladogenetic pattern in empirical trees generated
from data on extant species, we present tables of mean cdf's and associated
probabilities under the null model for expected branching times in phylads
of varying size. The approaches developed in this report complement and
extend those of other recent methods for employing null models to assess
the statistical significance of pattern in evolutionary trees.
|
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 Oxford 等数据库收录! |
|