A new method for testing evolutionary rate variation and shifts in phenotypic evolution

Quantifying phenotypic evolutionary rates and their variation across phylogenetic trees is a major issue in evolutionary biology. A number of phylogenetic comparative methods ( PCM s) currently perform such task. However, available PCM s can locate rate shifts pertaining to entire portions of the phylogeny, but not those expected to occur at the level of individual species and lineages, such as with the idea that body size changes more rapidly...