Ancient Wings: animating the evolution of butterfly wing patterns.

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology
• Computational biology
• Morphological evolution

Background:

• Phylogenetic trees are used to reconstruct ancestral states.
• Visualizing multiple ancestral states collectively is challenging.
• Morphological trait evolution is key to understanding biodiversity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce Ancient Wings, a novel visualization tool for ancestral states.
• To enable simultaneous visualization of multiple evolving morphological traits.
• To study the evolution of ventral hindwing patterns in Bicyclus butterflies.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Ancient Wings computer program.
• Utilizing character optimization methods for ancestral state reconstruction.
• Interactive visualization of evolutionary changes at phylogenetic tree nodes.

Main Results:

• Ancient Wings allows visualization of ventral hindwing pattern evolution in Bicyclus.
• Users can observe animated changes in wing size, eyespot size, and position.
• The tool facilitates collective visualization of putatively evolved traits.

Conclusions:

• Ancient Wings offers a new method for visualizing complex evolutionary trajectories.
• The program serves as both an educational tool and a research aid.
• It supports hypothesis generation in evolutionary, ecological, and developmental biology.