Hi all
I have a conceptual question related to the use of separate models of evolution
to reconstruct a morphospace.
Ok let’s consider that I have 6 endemic species on an island-like habitats for
which I have morphological traits. I want to generate a null expectation for
the morphospace of this community keeping the phylogenetic structure unchanged.
These 6 species belong to 3 different clades (2 species each). Let’s consider
that I have the phylogeny and the traits for all the mainland representative of
those three clades. My null hypotheses behind would be that endemic species
evolve at the same rate/same direction that mainland species.
My idea is the following: I fit different models of evolution to each clade
separately (endemic species included) e.g. BM, OU and use the parameters of the
best model to simulate random traits for each clade. I do 1000 runs and, at
each run, I pick up from my random clade-set of traits the 2 endemic species,
and re-create therefore a null morphospace for my community of 6 endemic
species.
So far, I cannot think about any possible “pitfalls”, but, since I did not find
any similar approaches in the literature, I am wondering whether it is
problematic to mix in the same null morphospace null trait values that have
been generated from distinct phylogenies and models of evolution.
any comments / advices are welcome
Many thanks
François
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