Abstract
Models of phenotypic evolution fit to phylogenetic comparative data are widely used to make inferences regarding the tempo and mode of trait evolution. A wide range of models is already available for this type of analysis, and the field is still under active development. One of the most needed development concerns models that better account for the effect of within- and between-clade interspecific interactions on trait evolution, which can result from processes as diverse as competition, predation, parasitism, or mutualism. Here, we begin by developing a very general comparative phylogenetic framework for (multi)-trait evolution that can be applied to both ultrametric and nonultrametric trees. This framework not only encapsulates many previous models of continuous univariate and multivariate phenotypic evolution, but also paves the way for the consideration of a much broader series of models in which lineages coevolve, meaning that trait changes in one lineage are influenced by the value of traits in other, interacting lineages. Next, we provide a standard way for deriving the probabilistic distribution of traits at tip branches under our framework. We show that a multivariate normal distribution remains the expected distribution for a broad class of models accounting for interspecific interactions. Our derivations allow us to fit various models efficiently, and in particular greatly reduce the computation time needed to fit the recently proposed phenotype matching model. Finally, we illustrate the utility of our framework by developing a toy model for mutualistic coevolution. Our framework should foster a new era in the study of coevolution from comparative data.
Highlights
Since these early developments, evolutionary biologists have designed a series of models to better understand the evolutionary processes that shape phenotypic evolution
We begin by presenting our framework and showing how previous models as well as novel clade-clade coevolutionary models fit within this framework; we provide general solutions for the distribution of tip trait values under this framework; we illustrate how the framework can be used to study a toy model of clade-clade coevolution
We showed that under a wide variety of models where the evolution of a given trait on a given lineage is linearly related to its own value and the value of other traits on the same lineage, of the same trait on other lineages, and/or of other traits on other lineages, the expected tip trait distribution is Gaussian
Summary
We developed a modeling framework for traits coevolving in coevolving lineages and clades. We provide a framework for computing tip trait distributions for a wide class of models accounting for within-clade and clade-clade interactions. We hope that this flexibility will foster the development and study of various models adapted to the specificities of particular scientific questions and biological systems. Our framework for modeling trait evolution on phylogenetic trees includes most previously proposed models and can be used to develop a series of new models of within-clade and clade-clade coevolution We hope that this will motivate new theoretical and empirical applications aimed at unravelling how species interactions evolve and influence phenotypic evolution over macro-evolutionary time-scales
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