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  • Textbook
  • © 2014

Modern Phylogenetic Comparative Methods and Their Application in Evolutionary Biology

Concepts and Practice

  • Helps to integrate of the rapidly developing statistical methodology into evolutionary biology

  • Provides an overview of the most recent phylogenetic comparative methods that have been developed for a diverse array of questions

  • The conceptual background is presented with an extensive list of biological examples and illustrative analyses

  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (23 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
  2. Handling Phylogenies in Different Statistical Designs

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 155-155
    2. An Introduction to Phylogenetic Path Analysis

      • Alejandro Gonzalez-Voyer, Achaz von Hardenberg
      Pages 201-229
    3. Phylogenetic Regression for Binary Dependent Variables

      • Anthony R. Ives, Theodore Garland Jr.
      Pages 231-261
    4. General Quantitative Genetic Methods for Comparative Biology

      • Pierre de Villemereuil, Shinichi Nakagawa
      Pages 287-303
    5. Multimodel-Inference in Comparative Analyses

      • László Zsolt Garamszegi, Roger Mundry
      Pages 305-331
  3. Specific Models for Studying Evolutionary Mechanisms

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 333-333
    2. Simulation of Phylogenetic Data

      • Emmanuel Paradis
      Pages 335-350
    3. Modelling Stabilizing Selection: The Attraction of Ornstein–Uhlenbeck Models

      • Brian C. O’Meara, Jeremy M. Beaulieu
      Pages 381-393
    4. Hidden Markov Models for Studying the Evolution of Binary Morphological Characters

      • Jeremy M. Beaulieu, Brian C. O’Meara
      Pages 395-408

About this book

Phylogenetic comparative approaches are powerful analytical tools for making evolutionary inferences from interspecific data and phylogenies. The phylogenetic toolkit available to evolutionary biologists is currently growing at an incredible speed, but most methodological papers are published in the specialized statistical literature and many are incomprehensible for the user community. This textbook provides an overview of several newly developed phylogenetic comparative methods that allow to investigate a broad array of questions on how phenotypic characters evolve along the branches of phylogeny and how such mechanisms shape complex animal communities and interspecific interactions. The individual chapters were written by the leading experts in the field and using a language that is accessible for practicing evolutionary biologists. The authors carefully explain the philosophy behind different methodologies and provide pointers – mostly using a dynamically developing online interface – on how these methods can be implemented in practice. These “conceptual” and “practical” materials are essential for expanding the qualification of both students and scientists, but also offer a valuable resource for educators. Another value of the book are the accompanying online resources (available at: http://www.mpcm-evolution.com), where the authors post and permanently update practical materials to help embed methods into practice.

Reviews

From the book reviews:

“Phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relationships among species or groups of species. … phylogenetic comparative method refers to analyses in a historical framework that compares data across such groups of species controlling for relatedness. Authors in this textbookreference work for scholars and students introduce and explain the mostly statistical methods for undertaking these comparisons. … A website provides data sets and guides to analyzing them with the approaches discussed in some chapters. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students through researchers/faculty.” (E. Delson, Choice, Vol. 52 (6), February, 2015)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana-CSIC, Sevilla, Spain

    László Zsolt Garamszegi

About the editor

László Zsolt Garamszegi is an Associate Professor at Estación Biológica de Doñana in Seville, Spain. His research focuses on various questions in evolutionary biology, with major interests in the evolution of behaviours, sexual signals and animal communication as well as host-parasite interactions. In all of these lines of investigations, Dr. Garamszegi heavily relies on the application and development of statistical approaches, in which he has obtained a considerable expertise. As a result, he plays a leading role in the dissemination of various tools for data analysis within the disciplines of evolutionary biology and behavioural ecology, which is clearly indicated by the number of methodological papers, journal volumes and conferences to which he contributed.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access