Choosing among poriferan morphological characters within the cladistic paradigm
Hajdu, E.; Van Soest, R.W.M. (1996). Choosing among poriferan morphological characters within the cladistic paradigm. Bull. Kon. Belg. Inst. Natuurwet. Biologie 66(Suppl.): 81-88
In: Bulletin van het Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen. Biologie = Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique. Biologie. Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen: Bruxelles. ISSN 0374-6429
Also appears in:
Willenz, Ph. (1996). Recent advances in sponge biodiversity inventory and documentation: Proceedings of the 10th Workshop on Atlanto-Mediterranean Sponge Taxonomy, Brussels, April 25-30, 1995. Bulletin van het Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen. Biologie = Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique. Biologie, 66(Suppl.). Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen: Brussel. 242 pp., more
A protocol is proposed by which certain classes of characters may be selected for use in phylogenetic reconstruction due to their overall better consistency in phylogenies. Alternatively, they could receive additional weight as opposed to classes that show an overall poor consistency and should be down weighted. We recognized 16 classes of characters within previously published data matrices of 17 poriferan phylogenies involving 221 OTUs (Operational Taxonomic Units, = terminal taxa). Only five classes occur in samples of large enough size that can allow discussion of observed trends. The high consistency observed in choanosomal architecture characters is possibly an artefact. Megascleres and microscleres show opposing results and these are discussed with reference to function and adaptation. In general, results are deemed preliminary because sample sizes are too small for the majority of recognized classes of characters, and different classes of characters may perform differently in different taxa, a suspicion which calls for an even larger sample base.
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