Unraveling the relationships between organisms and patterns of diversity is a central goal of evolutionary biology, pursuant to the aim of reconstructing the history of life. I constructed a hypothesis for species relationships in the shorebird suborder Scolopaci, and mapped onto this framework behavioural and life-history traits to infer their evolutionary history. Relationships were well-resolved and well-supported, although reliable resolution of certain nodes will require additional, independent sources of information. We estimated the Scolopaci ancestor to be monogamous, and care-giving through fledging, but ancestral breeding location and migration distance reconstructions were equivocal. Tests for correlations between parental care and other traits to explain extant species’ trait diversity show that, contrary to previous reports, evolution of Scolopaci diversity was a complex process that cannot be explained by individual character correlations. This study provides important insights into Scolopaci and shorebird evolutionary history, and the general practice of inferring past processes from phylogenetic hypotheses.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/24247 |
| Date | 06 April 2010 |
| Creators | Gibson, Rosemary |
| Contributors | Baker, Allan J. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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