The Assumptions and Challenges of Ancestral State Reconstructions

Abstract

portant papers (e.g., Felsenstein, 1985; Cod? dington, 1988; Donoghue, 1989), two influ? ential books (Brooks and McLennan, 1991; Harvey and Pagel, 1991), and the computer program MacClade (Maddison and Mad? dison, 1992). But although ancestral recon? structions have been embraced by both systematists and evolutionary biologists, the reliability and assumptions of these meth? ods need continued examination. An in?