University of Tasmania
Browse

File(s) under permanent embargo

The identification of concerted convergence in insect heads corroborates Palaeoptera

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 15:43 authored by Blanke, A, Greve, C, Wipfler, B, Beutel, R, Barbara HollandBarbara Holland, Misof, B
The relationships of the 3 major clades of winged insects—Ephemeroptera, Odonata, and Neoptera—are still unclear. Many morphologists favor a clade Metapterygota (Odonata +Neoptera), but Chiastomyaria (Ephemeroptera + Neoptera) or Palaeoptera (Ephemeroptera +Odonata) has also been supported in some older and more recent studies. A possible explanation for the difficulties in resolving these relationships is concerted convergence—the convergent evolution of entire character complexes under the same or similar selective pressures. In this study, we analyze possible instances of this phenomenon in the context of head structures of Ephemeroptera, Odonata, and Neoptera. We apply a recently introduced formal approach to detect the occurrence of concerted convergence. We found that characters of the tentorium and mandibles in particular, but also some other head structures, have apparently not evolved independently, and thus can cause artifacts in tree reconstruction. Our subsequent analyses, which exclude character sets that may be affected by concerted convergence, corroborate the Palaeoptera concept. We show that the analysis of homoplasy and its influence on tree inference can be formally improved with important consequences for the identification of incompatibilities between data sets. Our results suggest that modified weighting (or exclusion of characters) in cases of formally identified correlated cliques of characters may improve morphology-based tree reconstruction.

Funding

Australian Research Council

History

Publication title

Systematic Biology

Volume

62

Pagination

250-263

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

Copyright 2012 The Author(s)

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in the mathematical sciences

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC