Data from: Integrating fossils with molecular phylogenies improves inference of trait evolution

Comparative biologists often attempt to draw inferences about tempo and
mode in evolution by comparing the fit of evolutionary models to
phylogenetic comparative data consisting of a molecular phylogeny with
branch lengths and trait measurements from extant taxa. These kinds of
approaches ignore historical evidence for evolutionary pattern and process
contained in the fossil record. In this paper we show through simulation
that incorporation of fossil information dramatically improves our ability
to distinguish among models of quantitative trait evolution using
comparative data. We further suggest a novel Bayesian approach that allows
fossil information to be integrated even when explicit phylogenetic
hypothesis are lacking for extinct representatives of extant clades. By
applying this approach to a comparative dataset comprising body sizes for
caniform carnivorans, we show that incorporation of fossil information not
only improves ancestral state estimates relative to those derived from
extant taxa alone, but also results in preference of a model of evolution
with trend towards large body size over alternative models such as
Brownian motion or Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes. Our approach highlights
the importance of considering fossil information when making
macroevolutionary inference, and provided a way to integrate the kind of
sparse fossil information that is available to most evolutionary
biologists.