Behavioral phylogeny in deer : the relevance of vocal characters

International audienceThe phylogenetic relationships of Cervidae have been debated for decades. While recentmolecular studies seem to have reached a consensus, their results are in contradiction withphylogenies based on morphological characters. In a previous study of the behavioralrepertoire of females (87 characters, 9 species) we were able to specify \"ethotypes\" definingmonophyletic clades coherent with the current phylogeny of Cervidae, which suggested thatbehavior can provide a non-aberrant phylogenetic signal. In this study the phylogeneticrelationships among 11 species of Cervidae were inferred from an analysis of male vocalbehavior. Eighteen characters, including call types (e.g. antipredator bark, mating loudcall)and acoustic characteristics (call composition, fundamental frequency and formantfrequencies), were used for phylogeny inference. The resulting topology and the phylogeneticconsistency of behavioral characters were compared with those of current molecularphylogenies of Cervidae and with separate and simultaneous parsimony analyses of molecularand behavioral data. Our results indicate that male vocalizations constitute usefulphylogenetic characters in this taxon. Evolutionary scenarios for the vocal characters arediscussed in relation with associated behaviors