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Do Meristic Characters Used in Phylogenetic Analysis Evolve in an Ordered Manner?

Neil Brocklehurst1, Yara Haridy2

  • 1Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QR, UK.

Systematic Biology
|October 26, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Phylogenetic analysis of meristic traits, like teeth, should not assume an ordered evolution. Dental evolution in mammals shows ordered traits in simple dentition but unordered traits in complex, regionalized dentition.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Phylogenetics
  • Developmental Biology

Background:

  • The use of ordered characters in phylogenetic inference has varied historically.
  • Recent trends advocate for ordering all meristic traits, including continuous ones.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate factors influencing ordered evolution of meristic characters, specifically dental traits.
  • To determine if ordered or unordered models best fit dental evolution data.

Main Methods:

  • Examined dental evolution using empirical data from clades with homodont and heterodont dentition.
  • Utilized simulated tooth-row evolution incorporating developmental hierarchies and regionalization.
  • Compared ordered and unordered evolutionary models on molecular phylogenies.

Main Results:

  • Empirical data showed ordered character evolution in homodont dentition but unordered in heterodont dentition.
  • Simulations indicated that regionalization can lead to unordered models fitting better, even with ordered additions/removals.
  • Developmental suppression effects on tooth rows were variable based on relative rates.

Conclusions:

  • The decision to order meristic traits should be based on clade-specific evolutionary and developmental knowledge, not a universal policy.
  • Ordered vs. unordered character evolution depends on factors like dentition complexity and developmental control.