The Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 3015-3035 3015 Published by The Company of Biologists 2005 doi:10.1242/jeb.01745 Commentary Phylogenetic approaches in comparative physiology Theodore Garland, Jr1, Albert F. Bennett2,* and Enrico L. Rezende1 1Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA and 2Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA *Author for correspondence (e-mail:
[email protected]) Accepted 13 June 2005 Summary Over the past two decades, comparative biological and Monte Carlo computer simulations). We discuss when analyses have undergone profound changes with the and how to use phylogenetic information in comparative incorporation of rigorous evolutionary perspectives and studies and provide several examples in which it has been phylogenetic information. This change followed in large helpful, or even crucial, to a comparative analysis. We also part from the realization that traditional methods of consider some difficulties with phylogenetically based statistical analysis tacitly assumed independence of all statistical methods, and of comparative approaches in observations, when in fact biological groups such as general, both practical and theoretical. It is our personal species are differentially related to each other according to opinion that the incorporation of phylogeny information their evolutionary history. New phylogenetically based into comparative studies has been highly beneficial, not analytical methods were then rapidly developed, only because it can improve the reliability of statistical incorporated into ‘the comparative method’, and applied inferences, but also because it continually emphasizes the to many physiological, biochemical, morphological and potential importance of past evolutionary history in behavioral investigations. We now review the rationale for determining current form and function.