Shedding light on the 'dark side' of phylogenetic comparative methods.

ABSTRACT: Phylogenetic comparative methods are becoming increasingly popular for investigating evolutionary patterns and processes. However, these methods are not infallible - they suffer from biases and make assumptions like all other statistical methods.Unfortunately, although these limitations are generally well known in the phylogenetic comparative methods community, they are often inadequately assessed in empirical studies leading to misinterpreted results and poor model fits. Here, we explore reasons for the communication gap dividing those developing new methods and those using them.We suggest that some important pieces of information are missing from the literature and that others are difficult to extract from long, technical papers. We also highlight problems with users jumping straight int

SUBMITTER: Cooper N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4957270 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature