Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
The Pollination type appeared as a very variable character and consequently,
no clear evolutionary trend emerged from the character optimisation (Figure 4B).
The ancestral pollinators either were bees, beetles or flies, and the pollination type
for each subfamily (except Nypoideae) was ambiguous. In this family, even with
the binary coding (Figure 5), polymorphic species were so numerous that when
they were removed, according to one of the option chose, there were not enough
data left to perform any test. When polymorphic species were duplicated, as a
result of the high variability in characters, the comparative analyses failed to de-
tect a correlation between ornamentation type and pollination type in Arecaceae,
whatever the method used (Tables 2 and 3).
Figure 5.
Evolution of ornamentation and pollination in Arecaceae with polymorphic species duplicated.
A. Optimization
of ornamentation type coded as 'Other-O' (white) and 'Psilate/Verrucate' (black). B.
Optimization of pollination type coded as 'Other-P' (white) and 'Beetle' (black). The bicoloured branches
indicate an equivocal inference of the ancestral character state. The transitions towards 'Beetle' pollination and
'Psilate/Verrucate' ornamentation are indicated by full crossbars and the reversals towards 'Other-P' pollination
and 'Other-O' ornamentation are indicated by open crossbars (red and blue crossbars correspond respectively
to the ACCTRAN and DELTRAN optimizations). Species names are coloured according to the subfamilies
(Calamoideae in blue, Nypoideae in orange, Coryphoideae in green, Ceroxyloideae in pink and Arecoideae in red).
Table 3.
Comparative analyses conducted with the Concentrated-Changes Test [9] in Arecaceae.
