Phylogenetic morphometrics and its use in character evolution studies

CATALANO, SANTIAGO ANDRÉS; VERA CANDIOTTI, MARÍA FLORENCIA; GIANNINI, NORBERTO; GONZÁLEZ-JOSÉ, ROLANDO; MORALEZ, MIRIAM; PASCHETTA, CAROLINA; PREVOSTI, FRANCISCO

Riverside, California

Congreso; XXXII Meeting de la Sociedad Willi Hennig; 2012

Phylogenetic morphometrics (Catalano et al. 2009, Goloboff & Catalano 2010; Catalano & Goloboff 2012) is a new method to analyzed landmark data in a phylogenetic context. Besides its use in phylogenetic reconstruction, the method allows analyzing the evolution of shape characters along a tree. In this presentation we point out the advantages and caveats of this method for the study of character evolution. We also show different empirical examples where the method has been used for this purpose. Finally, we present an extension of the method to better deal with shape changes that affect whole structures.