Autocorrelação filogenética para o tamanho do corpo em corujas (Strigiformes) da América do Sul

Abstract

Developments in the analysis of comparative data indicate that is possible to partition the total variation of a give trait (T) into the phylogenetic component (P), which contains the variance shared by species and indicates the tendency called phylogenetic inertia and a specific component (S), which contains that part of variation that is peculiar to each species. Here, a phylogenetic auto-correlation analysis was used to verify the relative importance of these two components in body size variation of 19 owl (Strigiformes) species from South America, using phylogenetic relationships defines by molecular data. The estimated phylogenetic auto-regressive coefficient p was equal to 0,827, statistically significant at 1% level, and indicates that 68,4% of body size variation in owls (p²) can be atributed to phylogeny and evolutionary constraints. Further studies must take this effect into account to avoid spurious correlations when inferring Darwinian adaptations based solely on relationships betwen oul body size and components os environmental variation, e. g. population density, geographic range, clutch size and population growth rate.