Overview
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)
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Front Matter
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Introduction
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Front Matter
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Handling Phylogenies in Different Statistical Designs
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Front Matter
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Specific Models for Studying Evolutionary Mechanisms
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Front Matter
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Keywords
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
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
Book Title: Modern Phylogenetic Comparative Methods and Their Application in Evolutionary Biology
Book Subtitle: Concepts and Practice
Editors: László Zsolt Garamszegi
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43550-2
Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-662-43549-6Published: 13 August 2014
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-662-51291-3Published: 22 September 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-662-43550-2Published: 29 July 2014
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVI, 552
Number of Illustrations: 66 b/w illustrations, 47 illustrations in colour
Topics: Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, general, Ecology, Biodiversity, Molecular Ecology, Theoretical Ecology/Statistics