Behavioral phylogeny in deer : the relevance of vocal characters
Abstract
The phylogenetic relationships of Cervidae have been debated for decades. While recent
molecular studies seem to have reached a consensus, their results are in contradiction with
phylogenies based on morphological characters. In a previous study of the behavioral
repertoire of females (87 characters, 9 species) we were able to specify \"ethotypes\" defining
monophyletic clades coherent with the current phylogeny of Cervidae, which suggested that
behavior can provide a non-aberrant phylogenetic signal. In this study the phylogenetic
relationships among 11 species of Cervidae were inferred from an analysis of male vocal
behavior. Eighteen characters, including call types (e.g. antipredator bark, mating loudcall)
and acoustic characteristics (call composition, fundamental frequency and formant
frequencies), were used for phylogeny inference. The resulting topology and the phylogenetic
consistency of behavioral characters were compared with those of current molecular
phylogenies of Cervidae and with separate and simultaneous parsimony analyses of molecular
and behavioral data. Our results indicate that male vocalizations constitute useful
phylogenetic characters in this taxon. Evolutionary scenarios for the vocal characters are
discussed in relation with associated behaviors.