Phylogenetic comparative methods may fail to produce meaningful results when either the
underlying model is inappropriate or the data contain insufficient information to inform the …

The evolution of continuous traits is the central component of comparative analyses in
phylogenetics, and the comparison of alternative models of trait evolution has greatly …

The insight that species cannot be treated as independent points for analysis has
revolutionized comparative biology. Biologists now face choices among several new …

▪ Abstract Investigation into model selection has a long history in the statistical literature. As
model-based approaches begin dominating systematic biology, increased attention has …

The use of modelbased methods to infer a phylogenetic tree from a given data set is
frequently motivated by the truism that under certain circumstances the parsimony approach …

Background Uncertainty in comparative analyses can come from at least two sources: a)
phylogenetic uncertainty in the tree topology or branch lengths, and b) uncertainty due to …

Models of character evolution underpin all phylogeny estimations, thus model adequacy
remains a crucial issue for phylogenetics and its many applications. Although progress has …

Performance measures of phylogenetic estimation methods such as accuracy, consistency,
and power are an attempt at summarizing an ensemble of a given estimator's behavior …

Phylogenetic comparative methods are becoming increasingly popular for investigating
evolutionary patterns and processes. However, these methods are not infallible–they suffer …

Background Explicit evolutionary models are required in maximum-likelihood and Bayesian
inference, the two methods that are overwhelmingly used in phylogenetic studies of DNA …