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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

A Practical Guide to Phylogenetics for Nonexperts
Published on: February 5, 2014
Testing for phylogenetic signal in phenotypic traits: new matrices of phylogenetic proximities
Sandrine Pavoine1, Sébastien Ollier, Dominique Pontier
1Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR CNRS 5558, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, France. pavoine@mnhn.fr
Abstract:
Abouheif adapted a test for serial independence to detect a phylogenetic signal in phenotypic traits. We provide the exact analytic value of this test, revealing that it uses Moran's I statistic with a new matrix of phylogenetic proximities. We introduce then two new matrices of phylogenetic proximities highlighting their mathematical properties: matrix A which is used in Abouheif test and matrix M which is related to A and biodiversity studies. Matrix A unifies the tests developed by Abouheif, Moran and Geary. We discuss the advantages of matrices A and M over three widely used phylogenetic proximity matrices through simulations evaluating power and type-I error of tests for phylogenetic autocorrelation. We conclude that A enhances the power of Moran's test and is useful for unresolved trees. Data sets and routines are freely available in an online package and explained in an online supplementary file.
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