In univariate analysis, student t test, χ2 test, or Pearson's correlation (r) were used to describe the sample characters.
No variation of taxon sampling, character inclusion, or methodology resulted in the placement of the fleas within Mecoptera.
Although the effectiveness of sampling techniques influences which are used, other factors that determine the choice of sampling techniques include the site of sampling, size of the surface to be sampled, character of the surface (porous or nonporous), need to quantify the results, and preference and specialization of the laboratory where the test is done.
The importance of comprehensive population/taxon sampling and character sampling for correct inference of evolutionary relationships is well known.
We introduce new morphological data for phyllostomids and outgroups and expand previous molecular analyses to eliminate methodological sources of phylogenetic conflict such as taxonomic sampling, sparse character sampling, or use of different algorithms to estimate the phylogeny.
When tested with additional samples, characters that are critical for species diagnosis may be revealed to be polymorphic and not fixed [33] and it is possible that the key we developed will fail to distinguish species when tested against additional samples.
In our phylogenetic analysis based on maximum parsimony, taxon sampling, characters and coding largely follow those of Mallatt and Holland [ 11].
Bootstrap support for this clade rose for all five analytical methods when the number of sampled characters was nearly doubled (data set A [27 taxa × 10 genes] versus B [27 taxa × 21 genes]; Table 2).
Both these findings were replicated using alternative analyses (see Table S1 and Figure S3). Figure 7 shows a sample of character faces analysed for feature congestion.
Uncertainty in species-level relationships does, however, remain, due to incomplete taxon sampling, differences in character sampling among congeneric individuals, and potentially insufficient phylogenetic signal of chosen markers for resolving recent divergences.
