Patterns of phylogenetic divergence and phenotypic variation among genera of platyrrhini monkeys

ARISTIDE, LEANDRO; PEREZ, S. IVAN

Primatology in Argentina

SAREM

Año: 2017; p. 49 - 67

A great phenotypic diversification has occurred in some phylogenetic clades through a variety of biological processes during their evolutionary radiation. New World monkeys, the parvorder Platyrrhini of the order Primates, are an example of a major mammalian evolutionary radiation. Here, we study statistically the phylogenetic history and the phenotypic diversification of New World monkeys. To explore these subjects, we used molecular phylogeny (species tree), geometric morphometric and comparative methods. These approaches are very useful for studying phenotypic diversification in clades with a long phylogenetic history, such as platyrrhines. The comparative results allow us to depict a more complex picture of the phenotypic diversification among platyrrhines than has been achieved by previous studies. Specifically, we suggest that the phenotypic differences among platyrrhines could primarily be the product of both deterministic factors that generate stasis in size variation, and random factors that generate shape differences that increase proportionally with the phylogenetic distance.