CAT-Posterior Mean Site Frequencies Improves Phylogenetic Modeling Under Maximum Likelihood and Resolves Tardigrada as the Sister of Arthropoda Plus Onychophora.

ABSTRACT: Tardigrada, the water bears, are microscopic animals with walking appendages that are members of Ecdysozoa, the clade of molting animals that also includes Nematoda (round worms), Nematomorpha (horsehair worms), Priapulida (penis worms), Kinorhyncha (mud dragons), Loricifera (loricated animals), Arthropoda (insects, spiders, centipedes, crustaceans, and their allies), and Onychophora (velvet worms). The phylogenetic relationships within Ecdysozoa are still unclear, with analyses of molecular and morphological data yielding incongruent results. Accounting for across-site compositional heterogeneity using mixture models that partition sites in frequency categories, CATegories (CAT)-based models, has been shown to improve fit in Bayesian analyses. However, CAT-based models such as CAT-Poisson

SUBMITTER: Giacomelli M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11756273 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature