Both studies were based on small morphological datasets with few characters, the phylogenetic utility of which has been questioned [ 10].
The morphological dataset was combined with the 20.1kb molecular supermatrix of Beck [10]-which comprises DNA sequence data from 7 nuclear genes (APOB, BRCA1, IRBP, PGK1, P1, RAG1, and VWF) and 15 mitochondrial loci (12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, tRNA valine, and 12 H-strand protein-coding genes -and analysed usingenes -and3.1.2 [37].
The morphological dataset was updated with new data about buccal cartilages and the fine structure of the cephalic tentacles, and the validity of previous polarization of some characters like the absence of the hypobranchial gland or the flexoglosste condition of the radula was questioned [ 34].
The patristic distances calculated for each morphological dataset were significantly correlated with those of the ML tree estimated from the molecular dataset based on Pearson correlation or Mantel tests (Table 4).
The morphological dataset includes 304 characters with a focus on variation in the skull region.
Here we present a large-scale analysis combining a morphological dataset of 41 larval characters with sequence data from three nuclear genes and with broad taxon sampling within all the major thecostracan groups.
Subsequent work by the Grass Phylogeny Working Group GPWGG) [ 2] addressed weak support within and among the grass subfamilies by making use of informative characters in seven molecular datasets along with a morphological dataset.
The morphological dataset was analyzed using unordered parsimony with 1,000 random addition TBR branch swapping replicates using PAUP* [ 41], and we conducted 1,000 bootstrap replicates.
We combined evidence from four nuclear ribosomal and mitochondrial loci (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, 16S rRNA, and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) with a newly synthesized morphological dataset.
In contrast, reconstructing microhabitat specialization over the six most parsimonious morphological trees required only 9 or 11 steps (depending on tree), and randomizations indicated microhabitat specialization was highly correlated with the tree produced by the morphological dataset (P < 0.001).
