Phylogeny, Paleontology, and Primates: Do Incomplete Fossils Bias the Tree of Life?

• DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syu077
• Publication Date: 2014-09-20T02:53:06Z
• Authors: David J. Pattinson; Richard S. Thompson; Aleks K. Piotrowski; Robert J. Asher
• Keywords: Fossilization; Congruence (geometry)

Paleontological systematics relies heavily on morphological data that have undergone decay and fossilization. Here, we apply a heuristic means to assess how fossil's incompleteness detracts from inferring its phylogenetic relationships. We compiled matrix for primates simulated the extinction of living species by deleting an extant taxon's molecular keeping only those characters present in actual fossils. The choice given taxon (the subject) was defined fossil template). By measuring congruence between well-corroborated phylogeny incorporating artificial fossils, comparing real vs. random character distributions states, tested information content paleontological datasets determined if leads bias reconstruction. found positive correlation completeness topological congruence. Real templates sampled 36 or more 360 available (including dental) performed significantly better than similarly complete with states. Templates dominated one partition worse randomly across partitions. template based Eocene primate Darwinius masillae performs most other similar number characters, likely due preservation multiple Our results support interpretation is strepsirhine, not haplorhine, suggest are reliable