Do cladistic and morphometric data capture common patterns of morphological disparity?

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dc.contributor.authorHetherington, A.
dc.contributor.authorSherratt, E.
dc.contributor.authorRuta, M.
dc.contributor.authorWilkinson, M.
dc.contributor.authorDeline, B.
dc.contributor.authorDonoghue, P.
dc.contributor.editorAngielczyk, K.
dc.date.issued2015
dc.description.abstractThe distinctly non-random diversity of organismal form manifests itself in discrete clusters of taxa that share a common body plan. As a result, analyses of disparity require a scalable comparative framework. The difficulties of applying geometric morphometrics to disparity analyses of groups with vastly divergent body plans are overcome partly by the use of cladistic characters. Character-based disparity analyses have become increasingly popular, but it is not clear how they are affected by character coding strategies or revisions of primary homology statements. Indeed, whether cladistic and morphometric data capture similar patterns of morphological variation remains a moot point. To address this issue, we employ both cladistic and geometric morphometric data in an exploratory study of disparity focussing on caecilian amphibians. Our results show no impact on relative intertaxon distances when different coding strategies for cladistic characters were used or when revised concepts of homology were considered. In all instances, we found no statistically significant difference between pairwise Euclidean and Procrustes distances, although the strength of the correlation among distance matrices varied. This suggests that cladistic and geometric morphometric data appear to summarize morphological variation in comparable ways. Our results support the use of cladistic data for characterizing organismal disparity.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityAlexander J. Hetherington, Emma Sherratt, Marcello Ruta, Mark Wilkinson, Bradley Deline and Philip C.J. Donoghue
dc.identifier.citationPalaeontology, 2015; 58(3):393-399
dc.identifier.doi10.1111/pala.12159
dc.identifier.issn0031-0239
dc.identifier.issn1475-4983
dc.identifier.orcidSherratt, E. [0000-0003-2164-7877]
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/112442
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherWiley
dc.relation.grantNE/F00348X/1
dc.relation.grantNE/F009011/1
dc.relation.grantNE/F014872/1
dc.rights© 2015 The Authors. Palaeontology published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of The Palaeontological Association.
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1111/pala.12159
dc.subjectDisparity; evolution; morphospace; constraints; Gymnophiona
dc.titleDo cladistic and morphometric data capture common patterns of morphological disparity?
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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