Rates of molecular and morphological evolution are uncoupled across the eukaryote Tree of Life

Across a broad eukaryote phylogeny spanning 60 combined molecular–morphological data sets, rates of molecular and morphological evolution show very little evidence of linkage.

• Why it matters: It is unclear whether genome-wide and organism-wide evolutionary drivers act in tandem across eukaryotes, which would be expected if shared mutational or adaptive processes shaped both.
• What they did: The study used a maximum-likelihood phylogenetic sister-pair contrast framework on 60 data sets combining nucleotide sequences with discrete morphological characters across major eukaryote groups.
• The result: The uncoupling implies contrasting evolutionary dynamics, with morphological rates varying more across lineages while molecular evolution is more clocklike, informing how combined-data phylogenetic models should be built.

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