Cladistic analysis of continuous modularized traits provides phylogenetic signals in Homo evolution

Rolando González-José (), Ignacio Escapa, Walter A. Neves, Rubén Cúneo and Héctor M. Pucciarelli
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Rolando González-José: Unidad de Investigación de Diversidad, Sistemática y Evolución, Centro Nacional Patagónico, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CONICET, Boulevard Brown 2825, U9120ACF Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Ignacio Escapa: Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CONICET, Avenida Fontana 140, U9100GYO, Trelew, Argentina
Walter A. Neves: Laboratório de Estudos Evolutivos Humanos, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, CP 11461, 05422.970 São Paulo, Brazil
Rubén Cúneo: Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CONICET, Avenida Fontana 140, U9100GYO, Trelew, Argentina
Héctor M. Pucciarelli: Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CONICET, 1900 La Plata, Argentina

Nature, 2008, vol. 453, issue 7196, 775-778

Abstract: Cladistics with a human face Cladistics, an analytical approach to constructing evolutionary family trees, revolutionized evolutionary theory in the 1970s. Critics, though, had a valid complaint. By breaking up evolutionary features or characters into the discrete states required for computational analysis, researchers might be distorting continuously variable characters. For example human fossil skulls might be classified as either 'flat-faced' or 'protruding-faced', when in reality these traits vary continuously. González-José et al. circumvent these problems with a new approach that captures large-scale, biologically meaningful shape variation, treats the data using conventional statistics and uses the output to inform a cladistic analysis. Their test case, the Homo lineage, could provide a benchmark for future studies of the evolutionary relationships of groups in which there are many similar members. Their results support the firmly established relationships between Homo species and add some interesting detail, for instance placing Australopithecus africanus as a sister group to Homo.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature06891

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