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Identifying Cliques of Convergent Characters: Concerted Evolution in the Cormorants and Shags

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 03:18 authored by Barbara HollandBarbara Holland, Spencer, HG, Worthy, TH, Kennedy, M
A phylogenetic tree comprising clades with high bootstrap values or other strong measures of statistical support is usually interpreted as providing a good estimate of the true phylogeny. Convergent evolution acting on groups of characters in concert, however, can lead to highly supported but erroneous phylogenies. Identifying such groups of phylogenetically misleading characters is obviously desirable. Here we present a procedure that uses an independent data source to identify sets of characters that have undergone concerted convergent evolution. We examine the problematic case of the cormorants and shags, for which trees constructed using osteological and molecular characters both have strong statistical support and yet are fundamentally incongruent. We find that the osteological characters can be separated into those that fit the phylogenetic history implied by the molecular data set and those that do not. Moreover, these latter nonfitting osteological characters are internally consistent and form groups of mutually compatible characters or “cliques,” which are significantly larger than cliques of shuffled characters.We suggest, therefore, that these cliques of characters are the result of similar selective pressures and are a signature of concerted convergence.

History

Publication title

Systematic Biology

Volume

59

Issue

4

Pagination

433-445

ISSN

1063-5157

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

Taylor & Francis Inc

Place of publication

325 Chestnut St, Suite 800, Philadelphia, USA, Pa, 19106

Rights statement

The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at: www.oxfordjournals.org

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in the mathematical sciences

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