The mouse skull as a source of morphometric data for phylogeny inference

摘要: Abstract Brownian motion has been a model widely used for describing phenotypic evolution of continuous characters under random drift. Evolution traits evolving weak stabilizing selection, together with drift, can also be modeled by the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process, in which population moves at on an adaptive peak influence drift selection returning towards optimum. Obviously, reliability evolutionary stands or falls extent to underlying assumptions are supported violated. Another potential problem as source data phylogeny inference is correlation between them. To assess whether suitable modeling cranial and dental what these correlated one another, 11 measurements encompassing various aspects mouse skull morphology were collected subjected comparative analysis using generalized least squares method. It could shown that only about one-half evolved according model. Moreover, 44% coefficients exceeded 0.8, suggesting need removing covariances from prior phylogenetic analysis. Finally, ancestral states study estimated square There general trend enlarging overall size increasing braincase volume species genus Mus .