Rates and Rocks: Strengths and Weaknesses of Molecular Dating Methods.

ABSTRACT: I present here an in-depth, although non-exhaustive, review of two topics in molecular dating. Clock models, which describe the evolution of the rate of evolution, are considered first. Some of the shortcomings of popular approaches-uncorrelated clock models in particular-are presented and discussed. Autocorrelated models are shown to be more reasonable from a biological perspective. Some of the most recent autocorrelated models also rely on a coherent treatment of instantaneous and average substitution rates while previous models are based on implicit approximations. Second, I provide a brief overview of the processes involved in collecting and preparing fossil data. I then review the main techniques that use this data for calibrating the molecular clock. I argue that, in its current form

SUBMITTER: Guindon S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7267027 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature