TY - JOUR
T1 - Phylogenetic comparative methods and the geography of speciation
AU - Losos, Jonathan B.
AU - Glor, Richard E.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank M. Francis Benard, L. Harmon, J. Kolbe, J. Wakeley, D. Ziolkowski and three anonymous reviewers for comments. Peter Jackson shared his expertise on the geographical range of wild felids. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (DEB 9982736).
PY - 2003/5/1
Y1 - 2003/5/1
N2 - The geography of speciation has long been contentious. In recent years, phylogenetic approaches have been proposed to determine the geographical mode of speciation. If reliable, these methods not only provide a means of settling the debate about the geography of speciation, but also indicate that sympatric speciation is surprisingly common and that peripatric speciation is relatively rare. Similar to any phylogenetic inference, reconstructions of speciation mode are only useful if the underlying assumptions of the method are met. In this case, the key assumption is that the geographical range of both extant and ancestral species at the time of speciation can be inferred from present-day distributions. We discuss whether, and under what circumstances, such assumptions could be met. We conclude that interspecific phylogenies are unable to test alternative hypotheses concerning the geography of speciation rigorously because of the lability of geographical ranges and the lack of correlation between the role of adaptive processes and geographical mode of speciation.
AB - The geography of speciation has long been contentious. In recent years, phylogenetic approaches have been proposed to determine the geographical mode of speciation. If reliable, these methods not only provide a means of settling the debate about the geography of speciation, but also indicate that sympatric speciation is surprisingly common and that peripatric speciation is relatively rare. Similar to any phylogenetic inference, reconstructions of speciation mode are only useful if the underlying assumptions of the method are met. In this case, the key assumption is that the geographical range of both extant and ancestral species at the time of speciation can be inferred from present-day distributions. We discuss whether, and under what circumstances, such assumptions could be met. We conclude that interspecific phylogenies are unable to test alternative hypotheses concerning the geography of speciation rigorously because of the lability of geographical ranges and the lack of correlation between the role of adaptive processes and geographical mode of speciation.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0038364009&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0169-5347(03)00037-5
DO - 10.1016/S0169-5347(03)00037-5
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:0038364009
SN - 0169-5347
VL - 18
SP - 220
EP - 227
JO - Trends in Ecology and Evolution
JF - Trends in Ecology and Evolution
IS - 5
ER -