Patterns of phenotypic correlations among morphological traits across plants and animals.

ABSTRACT: Despite the long-standing interest of biologists in patterns of correlation and phenotypic integration, little attention has been paid to patterns of correlation across a broad phylogenetic spectrum. We report analyses of mean phenotypic correlations among a variety of linear measurements from a wide diversity of plants and animals, addressing questions about function, development, integration and modularity. These analyses suggest that vertebrates, hemimetabolous insects and vegetative traits in plants have similar mean correlations, around 0.5. Traits of holometabolous insects are much more highly correlated, with a mean correlation of 0.84; this may be due to developmental homeostasis caused by lower spatial and temporal environmental variance during complete metamorphosis. The lowest m

SUBMITTER: Conner JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4084534 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature