Biting into it: Occlusion and development force correlations and anticorrelations in dental characters

Liliana Davalos, Omar Warsi, Edward Li, Samuel Gochman, Nancy Simmons, Paul Velazco

Evolution Meetings, 22 June 2014

Key assumption: independencede Queiroz & Gatesy 2007

Compared to sequences

• Large representation of 0 dissimilarity

• Perhaps similarity arises from slower rates • Not from lack of

independence

Dávalos et al. 2014 Syst Biol

Bayesian analyses

Simulated matrices

Branch lengths & per character rate

Morphological matrix

Morphological phylogenies

Character states & ordering

Multiple characters on same toothExpected to result in correlations

OcclusionCorrelations, also anti-correlations from complementary patterns

Development forcing dependencyKangas et al. 2004

Dávalos et al. 2014 Syst Biol

Conclusion: rife with dependency

• All enrich for identical signal and anticorrelations

• Being on the same tooth

• Contributes more to identical signal

• Occlusion

• Being in dental series

• Complex pattern as distance in toothrow increases

Picture by Elizabeth Clare