Reconstructing evolutionary timescales using phylogenomics
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biogeography, Evolutionary Studies, Genetics, Genomics, Paleontology
- Keywords
- molecular clock, phylogenetic analysis, genomes, rate variation, placental mammals, birds, insects
- Copyright
- © 2016 Tong et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2016. Reconstructing evolutionary timescales using phylogenomics. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2403v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2403v1
Abstract
Reconstructing the timescale of the Tree of Life is one of the principal aims of evolutionary biology. This has been greatly aided by the development of the molecular clock, which enables evolutionary timescales to be estimated from genetic data. In recent years, high-throughput sequencing technology has led to an increase in the feasibility and availability of genome-scale data sets. These represent a rich source of biological information, but they also bring a set of analytical challenges. In this review, we provide an overview of phylogenomic dating and describe the challenges associated with analysing genome-scale data. We also report on recent phylogenomic estimates of the evolutionary timescales of mammals, birds, and insects.
Author Comment
This review article is a preprint submission to PeerJ Preprints.