The Comparative Method in Evolutionary Biology

by Harvey, Paul H.; Pagel, Mark D.

• ISBN13: 9780198546405
• ISBN10: 0198546408
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-06-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

From Darwin onward, it has been second nature for evolutionary biologists to think comparatively, because comparisons establish the generality of evolutionary phenomena. Do large genomes slow down development? What lifestyles select for large brains? Are extinction rates related to body size? These are all questions for the comparative method, and this book is about how such questions can be answered. It examines how the comparative method complements other approaches, identifies the biological causes of similarity among species, and discusses methods for reconstructing phylogenetic trees, along with many other topics. The book will interest all students, professionals, and researchers in evolutionary biology, ecology, genetics and related fields.

Table of Contents

The Comparative Method for Studying Adaptation
Introduction	1	(6)
The organization of this book	7	(2)
Two traditions in comparative biology: descent and guilds	9	(2)
The comparative approach for studying diversity	11	(11)
The comparative method and other ways of studying evolution	22	(5)
Testing adaptationist ideas using experiment, observation, and comparison	27	(4)
Defining characters and environments	31	(2)
Summary	33	(2)
Why Worry about Phylogeny?
Introduction	35	(1)
Correlation, causation, phylogeny, and confounding variables	36	(2)
Three reasons why phylogenetically related species are similar	38	(10)
Afterwords	48	(1)
Summary	49	(1)
Reconstructing Phylogenetic Trees and Ancestral Character States
Introduction	50	(1)
Reconstruction of phylogenetic trees	51	(20)
Finding ancestral character states	71	(6)
Summary	77	(1)
Comparative Analysis of Discrete Data
Introduction	78	(1)
The problem	79	(3)
Character transitions and discrete variables	82	(1)
Counting evolutionary events	83	(5)
Tests of directional hypotheses with discrete characters	88	(6)
A statistical model of evolutionary change	94	(7)
Estimating transition probabilities by maximum likelihood	101	(2)
Applying the statistical model to a real data set	103	(1)
Relationship of the statistical model to previous methods	104	(6)
Discussion	110	(3)
Summary	113	(1)
Comparative Analysis of Continuous Variables
Introduction	114	(2)
Testing hypotheses on continuous variables	116	(5)
Species analyses	121	(2)
Analysis of higher nodes	123	(6)
Stearns' phylogenetic-subtraction method	129	(5)
Phylogenetic autocorrelation method	134	(3)
A maximum likelihood approach	137	(1)
Independent comparisons methods	138	(21)
Testing hypotheses with independent comparisons	159	(3)
Directional methods	162	(5)
Selected computer simulation results	167	(2)
Conclusions	169	(1)
Summary	170	(1)
Determining the Forms of Comparative Relationships
Introduction	171	(1)
The fundamental allometric relation	172	(2)
Types of allometric relationship	174	(1)
Interpreting allometric lines	175	(4)
Techniques for fitting allometric equations	179	(7)
Applying the models for continuous variables to allometric relationships	186	(10)
Explaining allometry	196	(2)
Allometric models with more than one independent variable	198	(4)
Summary	202	(1)
Conclusion	203	(3)
References	206	(25)
Author Index	231	(5)
Subject Index	236