Table 1

Results of numerical simulations Hypothetical repeatability of single trait unsigned asymmetry (R) and the coefficient of variation of DS (CV-DS) and instability (CV-DI) for simulated datasets were the distribution of DS followed a beta-distribution with different shapes (Fig.1). Results are means (SD) of 1000 samples of 10000 observations.

β1
β2
shape of β-distribution
CV-DS
CV-DI
R

Symmetrical distributions

1
1
Uniform
0.58 (0.004)
0.58 (0.004)
0.16 (0.008)
2
2
Symmetric around 0.5
0.45 (0.003)
0.45 (0.003)
0.10 (0.007)
5
5
Symmetric around 0.5
0.30 (0.002)
0.30 (0.002)
0.04 (0.008)
10
10
Symmetric around 0.5
0.14 (0.001)
0.14 (0.001)
0.01 (0.010)
0.75
0.75
Bimodal
0.63 (0.004)
0.63 (0.004)
0.20 (0.006)
0.5
0.5
Bimodal
0.71 (0.005)
0.71 (0.005)
0.25 (0.006)
0.1
0.1
Bimodal
0.90 (0.008)
0.90 (0.008)
0.40 (0.004)
0.05
0.05
Bimodal
1.03 (0.01)
1.03 (0.008)
0.41 (0.004)

Skewed unimodal distributions

3
5
Right skewed
0.43 (0.003)
0.26 (0.002)
0.04 (0.010)
2
5
Right skewed
0.56 (0.004)
0.21 (0.002)
0.02 (0.009)
1
5
Right skewed
0.81 (0.005)
0.17 (0.002)
0.01 (0.009)
1
10
Right skewed
0.93 (0.007)
0.09 (0.007)
0.00 (0.009)
0.75
1
Right skewed
0.69 (0.005)
0.52 (0.004)
0.14 (0.007)
0.5
1
Right skewed
0.89 (0.006)
0.45 (0.004)
0.12 (0.007)
0.1
1
Right skewed
2.16 (0.02)
0.22 (0.004)
0.03 (0.008)
0.05
1
Right skewed
3.13 (0.04)
0.16 (0.003)
0.02 (0.009)
5
3
Left skewed
0.26 (0.002)
0.43 (0.004)
0.08 (0.009)
5
2
Left skewed
0.22 (0.002)
0.56 (0.004)
0.13 (0.008)
5
1
Left skewed
0.18 (0002)
0.80 (0.005)
0.22 (0.007)
10
1
Left skewed
0.09 (0.001)
0.91 (0.007)
0.26 (0.007)
1
0.75
Left skewed
0.52 (0.004)
0.70 (0.005)
0.22 (0.007)
1
0.5
Left skewed
0.45 (0.004)
0.90 (0.006)
0.30 (0.006)
1
0.1
Left skewed
0.22 (0.004)
2.15 (0.02)
0.55 (0.002)
1
0.05
Left skewed
0.17 (0.004)
2.85 (0.04)
0.58 (0.002)

Asymmetric bimodal distributions

0.5
0.75
Right asymmetric
0.82 (0.006)
0.54 (0.005)
0.17 (0.007)
0.1
0.75
Right asymmetric
2.01 (0.021)
0.27 (0.004)
0.06 (0.008)
0.05
0.75
Right asymmetric
2.89 (0.037)
0.19 (0.004)
0.03 (0.009)
0.1
0.5
Right asymmetric
1.77 (0.017)
0.35 (0.005)
0.10 (0.008)
0.75
0.5
Left asymmetric
0.55 (0.005)
0.82 (0.006)
0.28 (0.006)
0.75
0.1
Left asymmetric
0.28 (0.004)
2.00 (0.019)
0.54 (0.002)
0.75
0.05
Left asymmetric
0.19 (0.004)
2.86 (0.041)
0.58 (0.001)
0.5
0.1
Left asymmetric
0.35 (0.005)
1.75 (0.018)
0.51 (0.001)

Van Dongen and Lens BMC Evolutionary Biology 2002 2:11   doi:10.1186/1471-2148-2-11