Uncertainty in the reconstruction of ancestral character states and limitations on the use of phyolgenetic comparative methods

摘要

Phylogenetic approaches to the study of comparative data have a long history in the field of animal behaviour (e.g. Lorenz 1941; Greene & Burghardt 1978; Gittleman 19810. However, since the publication in 1991 Of Brooks & Pagel's Phylogeny, Ecology and Behavior And Harvey & Pagel's The comparative Method in Evolution- Ary Biology, there has been a huge increase in the use of Phylogenetic methods in comparative studies.