Analysis of Paedomorphosis Using Allometric Characters: The Example of Reduncini Antelopes (Bovidae, Mammalia)

Two kinds of characters of reduncine antelopes were analyzed cladistically: (1) quantitative osteological characters treated allometrically to remove the effects of body weight and (2) discretely coded characters. Character congruence was tested by combined cladistic analysis of all the data. We analyzed reduncine ontogeny and addressed the general question of how cladistics can be used together with ontogenetic information to study heterochrony. We tested whether characters of waterbuck evolved by paedomorphosis within the genus Kobus or whether these characters are plesiomorphic retentions. The plesiomorphic hypothesis was falsified and the paedomorphosis hypothesis was supported.