Biomedical subjects

Pablo A Goloboff

Publications and source records attributed to Pablo A Goloboff.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2002

Optimization of polytomies: state set and parallel operations.

New algorithms for calculating the most parsimonious state sets for polytomies under Fitch parsimony are described. Because they are based on state set operations, these algorithms can be extended for optimization of several characters in parallel, thus increasing speed by a significant factor. This speed increase may facilitate analysis of molecular data sets, many of which contain hundreds of taxa, thousands of multistate nonadditive characters, and numerous polytomies.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2002

An optimality criterion to determine areas of endemism.

A formal method was developed to determine areas of endemism. The study region is divided into cells, and the number of species that can be considered as endemic is counted for a given set of cells (= area). Thus, the areas with the maximum number of species considered endemic are preferred. This is the first method for the identification of areas of endemism that implements an optimality criterion directly based on considering the aspects of species distribution that are relevant to endemism. The method is implemented in two computer programs, NDM and VNDM, available from the authors.

Demography↗

PubMed2002

A phylogeny of the tinamous (aves: palaeognathiformes) based on integumentary characters.

A cladistic analysis of the tinamous, including the 47 currently recognized species and some distinct subspecies, was conducted based on 80 integumentary characters from adult and natal plumage, ramphoteca (corneum sheath of bill), and podoteca (horny scales of legs). For the adult plumage (50 characters), we studied feather pigmentation patterns from different pterylae (feather tracts). A criterion of overlap of basic pigmentation elements was used to assign costs to the transformation between the states in most of these characters in such a way that transformations between more similar conditions were less costly. The consensus tree was almost fully resolved, and about 50% of its groups were relatively well supported. Because the only outgroup that could be used provided a poor root, two possible rootings of the ingroup subtree were considered; in both cases, only one of the two traditional subfamilies (the steppe tinamous) was recovered, and the other (the forest tinamous) appeared as paraphyletic. The results of the present analysis are compared with those from an osteological data set, using a strict supertree technique. The combined tree has a large number of nodes, indicating a high degree of congruence between the two data sets.

Animals↗