How many more? Sample size determination in studies of morphological integration and evolvability

Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Mark Grabowski, Arthur Porto

Abstract

1. The variational properties of living organisms are an important component of current evolutionary theory. As a consequence, researchers working on the field of multivariate evolution have increasingly used integration and evolvability statistics as a way of capturing the potentially complex patterns of trait association and their effects over evolutionary trajectories. Little attention has been paid, however, to the cascading effects that inaccurate estimates of trait covariance have on these widely used evolutionary statistics. 2. Here, we analyze the relationship between sampling effort and inaccuracy in evolvability and integration statistics calculated from 10-trait matrices with varying patterns of covariation and magnitudes of integration. We then extrapolate our initial approach to different numbers of traits and different magnitudes of integration and estimate general equations relating the inaccuracy of the statistics of interest to sampling effort. We validate our equations using a dataset of cranial traits, and use them to make sample size recommendations. 3. Our results suggest that highly inaccurate estimates of evolvability and integration statistics resulting from small sample sizes are likely common in the li...Continue Reading

References

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Citations

Jan 24, 2018·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Catalina I Villamil
Mar 23, 2018·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Mark A ConawayNoreen von Cramon-Taubadel
Jan 6, 2018·Evolutionary Applications·Steven J FranksArthur E Weis
Feb 28, 2019·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Thomas F HansenMihaela Pavlicev
Oct 10, 2019·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Fabio A MachadoGabriel Marroig
Nov 2, 2019·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Mikel ArlegiAsier Gómez-Olivencia
Jan 9, 2020·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Kristen R R Savell
Jul 31, 2018·Journal of Human Evolution·James D PampushLucas K Delezene
May 22, 2021·Journal of Human Evolution·Hyunwoo JungNoreen von Cramon-Taubadel
Oct 23, 2021·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Junya Watanabe

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