Parasitology, Harold W. Manter Laboratory of
Date of this Version
5-1993
Abstract
The study of behavioral and ecological evolution within a phylogenetic context (historical ecology; Brooks and McLennan 1991) is an important component of comparative studies in evolutionary biology. Although the number of historical ecological studies is growing rapidly, this research field is still in its infancy--an infancy whose maturation is hampered by the absence of rigorous phylogenetic hypotheses for many of the groups that have traditionally fascinated behavioral ecologists. In the absence of such critical information, behavioral ecologists are faced with the options either of forming cooperative groups with phylogenetic systematists or of investigating their ecological data based on "trees" reconstructed from old classification schemes or phenograms, neither of which produces a robust phylogenetic hypothesis of genealogy. Most researchers have opted for the second approach, prefacing their investigations with the caveat that the analysis and conclusions are only preliminary because of the unsatisfactory nature of the phylogenetic hypotheses available to them. The importance of a preliminary analysis cannot be underestimated for researchers who, recognizing the importance of incorporating phylogenetic information into evolutionary explanations, are frustrated by their inability to apply such an approach to their burgeoning data sets. It is, however, equally important to realize that a preliminary analysis can, at best, produce only tentative results (see, e.g., Sillen-Tullberg 1988). If the data themselves are both incomplete and ambiguous, this will compound the problems arising from an absence of a rigorous phylogenetic framework, which will produce a confusing picture of behavioral or ecological evolution.
Comments
Published in the American Naturalist (May 1993) 790-795. Copyright 1993, the University of Chicago. Also available at: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/285505?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dncbi.nlm.nih.gov Used by permission.