Species delimitation using a combined coalescent and information-theoretic approach: an example from North American Myotis bats.

ABSTRACT: Coalescent model-based methods for phylogeny estimation force systematists to confront issues related to the identification of species boundaries. Unlike conventional phylogenetic analysis, where species membership can be assessed qualitatively after the phylogeny is estimated, the phylogenies that are estimated under a coalescent model treat aggregates of individuals as the operational taxonomic units and thus require a priori definition of these sets because the models assume that the alleles in a given lineage are sampled from a single panmictic population. Fortunately, the use of coalescent model-based approaches allows systematists to conduct probabilistic tests of species limits by calculating the probability of competing models of lineage composition. Here, we conduct the first expl

SUBMITTER: Carstens BC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2885268 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature