As more complete genomes are sequenced, phylogenetic analysis is entering a new era—
that of phylogenomics. One branch of this expanding field aims to reconstruct the …

Recent excitement over the development of an initiative to generate DNA sequences for all
named species on the planet has in our opinion generated two major areas of contention as …

Background Development of phylogenetic methods that do not rely on fossils for the study of
evolutionary processes through time have revolutionized the field of evolutionary biology …

Dating the tree of life is a core endeavor in evolutionary biology. Rates of evolution are
fundamental to nearly every evolutionary model and process. Rates need dates. There is …

Background Although it has proven to be an important foundation for investigations of
carnivoran ecology, biology and evolution, the complete species-level supertree for …

Large datasets are required to solve difficult phylogenetic problems that are deep in the Tree
of Life. Currently, two divergent systematic methods are commonly applied to such datasets …

The problem of missing data is often considered to be the most important obstacle in
reconstructing the phylogeny of fossil taxa and in combining data from diverse characters …

Understanding how and why certain clades diversify greatly in morphology whereas others
do not remains a major theme in evolutionary biology. Projecting families of phylogenies into …

One of every 10 flowering plant species is in the family Compositae. With ca. 24,000-30,000
species in 1600-1700 genera and a distribution that is global except for Antarctica, it is the …

The remarkable fossil record of whales and dolphins (Cetacea) has made them an exemplar
of macroevolution. Although their overall adaptive transition from terrestrial to fully aquatic …