Morphology and integrative phylogenetics

摘要

Since Willi Hennig laid the foundations of phylogenetic systematics in 1950, this field has undergone remarkable progress. While the goals of phylogenetic systematics have remained unaltered — classifications that reflect the genealogical relationships of organisms — the employed methods and datasets to achieve this have profoundly changed. Hennig's original method, the "a priori polarization of characters" has been largely replaced or supplemented by a cladistic ("a posteriori") polarization of characters and the analyzed data sets, which used to be mainly based on morphology, now largely rely on molecules. In contrast to this, Hennig (1950, 1966) farsightedly advocated an integrative phylogenetic approach that includes all available data sources(see also Wheeler et al. 2013). However, sound morphological data can only be retrieved from detailed comparative studies. Today, such studies are substantially underrepre-sented in the biological literature, probably because they are time-consuming andgenerally not considered as "high-impact science". Complex morphological character systems are not only an important source of phylogenetically relevant data their comparative study also allows unique insights in the evolution of characters in responseto adaptations of species to different lifestyles.