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How should functional relationships be evaluated using phylogenetic comparative methods? A case study using metabolic rate and body temperature by Josef C. Uyeda; Nicholas Bone; Sean McHugh; Jonathan Rolland; Matthew W. Pennell is a Agricultural and Biological Sciences article available to read on EtoBox.

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Phylogenetic comparative methods are often used to test functional relationships between traits. However, million-year macroevolutionary observational datasets cannot definitively prove causal links between traits-correlation does not equal causation and experimental manipulation over such timescales is impossible. Although this caveat is widely understood, it is less appreciated that different phylogenetic approaches imply different causal assumptions about the functional relationships of traits. To make meaningful inferences, it is critical that our statistical methods make biologically reasonable assumptions. Here we illustrate the importance of causal reasoning in comparative biology by examining a recent study by Avaria-Llautureo et al (2019). that tested for the evolutionary coupling of metabolic rate and body temperature across endotherms and found that these traits were unlinked through evolutionary time and that body temperatures were, on average, higher in the early Cenozoic than they are today. We argue that the causal assumptions embedded into their models made it impossible for them to test the relevant functional and evolutionary hypotheses. We reanalyze their data us

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Author

Josef C. Uyeda; Nicholas Bone; Sean McHugh; Jonathan Rolland; Matthew W. Pennell

Publisher

Wiley

Published

2021

Language

EN

Field

Agricultural and Biological Sciences (Life Sciences)