Using this matrix as an example, the post deals with commonly ignored problem that palaeophylogenetic matrices provide non-treelike, often ambiguous, partly conflicting signals. Cladograms, i.e. phylogenetic trees without branch-lengths (and here: branch support), cannot capture the strengths and weaknesses of the used data. The polytomies may be soft (e.g. one jumping taxon) or semi-hard (no diff...

…read more, vote or comment

…read more, vote or comment

…read more, vote or comment

…read more, vote or comment

…read more, vote or comment

…read more, vote or comment

…read more, vote or comment

…read more, vote or comment

…read more, vote or comment