The Wagner Parsimony using morphological characters: a new method for palaeosynecological studies

The limits and difficulties related to the tools currently in use for palaeosynecological comparisons of faunas or floras of different geological periods are discussed. The new method of the Wagner parsimony Applied to Palaeosynecology Using Morphology (WAPUM method), is defined and tested on morpho...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Nel, André, Nel, Patricia, Petrulevicius, Julián F., Perrichot, Vincent, Prokop, Jakub, Azar, Dany
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2010
País:Argentina
Institución:Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Repositorio:SEDICI (UNLP)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/82469
Acceso en línea:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/82469
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ciencias Naturales
Cladistics
Fossil record
Insecta
Odonatoptera
Phylogeny
Thripida
Descripción
Sumario:The limits and difficulties related to the tools currently in use for palaeosynecological comparisons of faunas or floras of different geological periods are discussed. The new method of the Wagner parsimony Applied to Palaeosynecology Using Morphology (WAPUM method), is defined and tested on morphological characters gathered from two insect groups Odonatoptera and Thripida. The difficulties related to the monophyly of the taxonomic groups used in the more traditional approaches are no longer a problem when using the WAPUM method. In the WAPUM a character is ‘presence versus absence of species bearing a morphological structure’. The results obtained from use of the WAPUM minimize the number of changes among character states. Application of the WAPUM could reveal signals to confirm or object the currently available scenarios for the global changes in the evolution of past diversity and disparity of organisms (major changes or global crises of diversity).