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American Zoologist 1981 21(1):37-45; doi:10.1093/icb/21.1.37
© 1981 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
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Functional Analysis and the Practice of the Phylogenetic Method as Reflected by Some Mammalian Studies1

FREDERICK S. SZALAY
Department of Anthropology, Hunter College CUNY, 695 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10021; Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History New York, New York 10024

SYNOPSIS. The reliability of a phylogenetic hypothesis is largely dependent on the diversity and abundance of characters. The meaning and complexity of these is furthermore a significant factor in choosing some characters over others to reflect the relative recency of taxa. Studying mechanical function and biological roles of character complexes yields new characters anda more profound appreciation of the "known" ones. This growth in available information invariably results in more convincing assembly of morphocline polarities or more clearly established homologies. This procedure of character analysis permits the construction of phylogenies whichare more probable and based more securely on the foundations of any phylogeny: biologically researched homologies. When ontogenetic, functional and adaptational studies result in equivocalveiws, as to the polarity of a character cline, often the fossil record offers a clear and testable hypothesis on character cline polarity.


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