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Summary: Rapidly evolving traits and the comparative method:
how important is testing for phylogenetic signal?
Frank E. Rheindt,
1
* T. Ulmar Grafe
2
and Ehab Abouheif
1
1
Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA and
2
Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg,
97074 Würzburg, Germany
ABSTRACT
The indiscriminate application of phylogenetically based comparative methods in cross-species
correlated evolution analyses has been questioned. It has been argued that traits are not always
significantly correlated to their phylogenetic history, and that correcting for phylogeny in these
cases may be unnecessary and may even introduce statistical error. Statistical diagnostics to test
for phylogenetic signal have recently been presented. Here, we investigate the relationship
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