Data from: The more, the better: the use of multiple landmark configurations to solve the phylogenetic relationships in Musteloids

Although the use of landmark data to study shape changes along a phylogenetic tree has become a common practice in evolutionary studies, the role of this sort of data for the inference of phylogenetic relationships remains under debate. Theoretical issues aside, the very existence of historical information in landmark data has been challenged, since phylogenetic analyses have often shown little congruence with alternative sources of evidence. However, most analyses conducted in the past were based upon a single landmark configuration, leaving unsettled whether the incorporation of multiple configurations may improve the rather poor performance of this data source in most previous phylogenetic analyses. In the present study we present a phylogenetic analysis of landmark data that combines information derived from several skeletal structures in order to derive a phylogenetic tree for musteloids. The analysis includes nine configurations representing different skeletal structures for 24 species. The resulting tree presents several notable concordances with phylogenetic hypotheses derived from molecular data. In particular, Mephitidae, Procyonidae, and Lutrinae plus the genera Martes, Mustela, Galictis, and Procyon were retrieved as monophyletic. In addition, other groupings were in agreement with molecular phylogenies or presented only minor discordances. Complementary analyses have also indicated that the results improve substantially when an increasing number of landmark configurations are included in the analysis. The results presented here thus highlight the importance of combining information from multiple structures in order to derive phylogenetic hypotheses from landmark data.尽管利用形态地标数据（landmark data）沿系统发育树研究形态变化已成为进化研究中的常规手段，但此类数据在系统发育关系推断中的作用仍存在争议。暂且搁置理论层面的问题，形态地标数据本身是否蕴含历史信息也遭到了质疑——过往的系统发育分析结果通常与其他证据来源的契合度较低。然而，过往绝大多数分析仅采用单一组态的形态地标数据，因此尚不清楚纳入多组地标构型能否改善此类数据源在以往多数系统发育分析中表现欠佳的现状。本研究针对形态地标数据开展系统发育分析，整合了多个骨骼结构的相关信息，旨在构建鼬超科（musteloids）的系统发育树。本次分析涵盖了代表24个物种不同骨骼结构的9组地标构型。所构建的系统发育树与基于分子数据得到的系统发育假说存在多处显著契合之处。具体而言，臭鼬科（Mephitidae）、浣熊科（Procyonidae）、水獭亚科（Lutrinae）以及貂属（Martes）、鼬属（Mustela）、巢鼬属（Galictis）、浣熊属（Procyon）均被恢复为单系群（monophyletic）。此外，其余类群的划分要么与分子系统发育结果一致，仅存在微小的不一致性。补充分析结果同样显示，随着纳入分析的地标构型数量增加，分析结果的质量会得到显著提升。因此，本研究结果凸显了整合多结构信息的重要性，为通过形态地标数据构建可靠的系统发育假说提供了支撑。