The coevolve package allows the user to fit Bayesian generalized dynamic phylogenetic models in Stan. These models can be used to estimate how traits have coevolved over evolutionary time and to assess causal directionality (X → Y vs. Y → X) and contingencies (X, then Y) in evolution.
While existing methods only allow pairs of binary traits to coevolve (e.g., BayesTraits), the coevolve package allows users to include multiple traits of different data types, including binary, ordinal, count, and continuous traits.
You can install the development version of coevolve with:
# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("ScottClaessens/coevolve")library(coevolve)As an example, we analyse the coevolution of political and religious authority in 97 Austronesian societies. These data were compiled and analysed in Sheehan et al. (2023). Both variables are four-level ordinal variables reflecting increasing levels of authority. We use a phylogeny of Austronesian languages to assess patterns of coevolution.
fit <-
coev_fit(
data = authority$data,
variables = list(
political_authority = "ordered_logistic",
religious_authority = "ordered_logistic"
),
id = "language",
tree = authority$phylogeny,
# manually set prior
prior = list(A_offdiag = "normal(0, 2)"),
# arguments for cmdstanr
parallel_chains = 4,
refresh = 0,
seed = 1
)
#> Running MCMC with 4 parallel chains...
#>
#> Chain 3 finished in 256.2 seconds.
#> Chain 4 finished in 262.9 seconds.
#> Chain 1 finished in 354.9 seconds.
#> Chain 2 finished in 361.1 seconds.
#>
#> All 4 chains finished successfully.
#> Mean chain execution time: 308.8 seconds.
#> Total execution time: 361.2 seconds.
#> Warning: 7 of 4000 (0.0%) transitions ended with a divergence.
#> See https://mc-stan.org/misc/warnings for details.The results can be investigated using:
summary(fit)
#> Variables: political_authority = ordered_logistic
#> religious_authority = ordered_logistic
#> Data: authority$data (Number of observations: 97)
#> Phylogeny: authority$phylogeny (Number of trees: 1)
#> Draws: 4 chains, each with iter = 1000; warmup = 1000; thin = 1
#> total post-warmup draws = 4000
#>
#> Autoregressive selection effects:
#> Estimate Est.Error 2.5% 97.5% Rhat Bulk_ESS Tail_ESS
#> political_authority -0.64 0.53 -1.96 -0.02 1.00 2282 2149
#> religious_authority -0.81 0.57 -2.16 -0.04 1.00 2639 2106
#>
#> Cross selection effects:
#> Estimate Est.Error 2.5% 97.5% Rhat Bulk_ESS Tail_ESS
#> political_authority ⟶ religious_authority 2.34 0.96 0.42 4.29 1.01 1508 1853
#> religious_authority ⟶ political_authority 1.68 1.08 -0.42 3.83 1.00 1067 2030
#>
#> Drift parameters:
#> Estimate Est.Error 2.5% 97.5% Rhat Bulk_ESS Tail_ESS
#> sd(political_authority) 2.01 0.83 0.25 3.60 1.01 643 602
#> sd(religious_authority) 1.25 0.79 0.08 2.96 1.02 734 1737
#> cor(political_authority,religious_authority) 0.26 0.31 -0.41 0.77 1.00 2760 2512
#>
#> Continuous time intercept parameters:
#> Estimate Est.Error 2.5% 97.5% Rhat Bulk_ESS Tail_ESS
#> political_authority 0.23 0.94 -1.60 2.07 1.00 4889 2814
#> religious_authority 0.31 0.94 -1.51 2.19 1.00 5071 2710
#>
#> Ordinal cutpoint parameters:
#> Estimate Est.Error 2.5% 97.5% Rhat Bulk_ESS Tail_ESS
#> political_authority[1] -1.32 0.88 -3.05 0.43 1.00 2746 2770
#> political_authority[2] -0.57 0.86 -2.28 1.14 1.00 3083 2967
#> political_authority[3] 1.63 0.88 -0.06 3.48 1.00 3629 3113
#> religious_authority[1] -1.50 0.92 -3.28 0.31 1.00 3289 2605
#> religious_authority[2] -0.81 0.91 -2.59 0.96 1.00 3582 2759
#> religious_authority[3] 1.63 0.92 -0.12 3.49 1.00 3786 3337
#> Warning: There were 7 divergent transitions after warmup.
#> http://mc-stan.org/misc/warnings.html#divergent-transitions-after-warmupThe summary provides general information about the model and details on the posterior draws for the model parameters. In particular, the output shows the autoregressive selection effects (i.e., the effect of a variable on itself in the future), the cross selection effects (i.e., the effect of a variable on another variable in the future), the amount of drift, continuous time intercept parameters for the stochastic differential equation, and cutpoints for the ordinal variables.
While this summary output is useful as a first glance, it is difficult to interpret these parameters directly to infer directions of coevolution. Another approach is to “intervene” in the system. We can hold variables of interest at their average values and then increase one variable by a standardised amount to see how this affects the optimal trait value for another variable.
The coev_plot_delta_theta() function allows us to visualise
coev_plot_delta_theta(fit, prob_outer = 0.90)
#> Warning: Removed 518 rows containing non-finite outside the scale range (`stat_density()`).
This plot suggests that both variables influence one another in their coevolution. A standardised increase in political authority results in an increase in the optimal trait value for religious authority, and vice versa. In other words, these two variables reciprocally coevolve over evolutionary time.
When using the coevolve package, please cite the following papers:
- Ringen, E., Martin, J. S., & Jaeggi, A. (2021). Novel phylogenetic methods reveal that resource-use intensification drives the evolution of “complex” societies. EcoEvoRXiv. https://doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/wfp95
- Ringen, E., Claessens, S., Martin, J. S., & Jaeggi, A. V. (2026). Trait coevolution and causal inference using generalized dynamic phylogenetic models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 17(6), 1818-1836. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.70303