Phylogenetic analysis of quantitative characters: the pendulum keeps swinging?

CATALANO, SANTIAGO ANDRÉS

Reunion Virtual

Congreso; II VIRTUAL MEETING OF SYSTEMATICS, BIOGEOGRAPHY, AND EVOLUTION; 2021

In a long-lasting crusade against the use of quantitative characters in phylogenetics, numerous and diverse issues have been raised. Common themes are the mistaken ideas that quantitative characters are ?phenetic? or that they are not heritable. The last step of this story has recently come to light with the publication of a paper by Varón-González and collaborators (2020). These authors, based on simulations, concluded that quantitative characters are not suitable for phylogenetic inference. I will use the ideas presented in that study to trigger different discussions about the use of this kind of information in phylogenetics. I will show why the results obtained by those authors ?if perhaps important from a theoretical point of view- have little connection with real world analyses. As a consequence, the general idea that quantitative characters are not suitable for (real world) phylogenetic analyses is unsupported. Contrasting with this position, I propose a positive agenda that includes different lines of research that may help improve the phylogenetic analyses of quantitative data in general, and landmark configurations in particular.