But the Clock, Tick-Tock: An Empirical Case Study Highlights the Preeminence of Relaxed Clock Models in Total-Evidence Dating.

ABSTRACT: Phylogenetic clock models translate inferred amounts of evolutionary change (calculated from either genotypes or phenotypes) into estimates of elapsed time, providing a mechanism for time scaling phylogenetic trees. Relaxed-clock models, which accommodate variation in evolutionary rates across branches, are one of the main components of Bayesian dating, yet their consequences for total-evidence phylogenetics have not been thoroughly explored. Here, we combine morphological, molecular (both transcriptomic and Sanger-sequenced), and stratigraphic data sets for all major lineages of echinoids (sea urchins, heart urchins, sand dollars). We then perform total-evidence dated inference under the fossilized birth-death prior, varying two analytical conditions: the choice between autocorrelated and

SUBMITTER: Mongiardino Koch N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12805667 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature