Performance of A Priori and A Posteriori Calibration Strategies in Divergence Time Estimation.

ABSTRACT: Relaxed molecular clock methods allow the use of genomic data to estimate divergence times across the tree of life. This is most commonly achieved in Bayesian analyses where the molecular clock is calibrated a priori through the integration of fossil information. Alternatively, fossil calibrations can be used a posteriori, to transform previously estimated relative divergence times that were inferred without considering fossil information, into absolute divergence times. However, as branch length is the product of the rate of evolution and the duration in time of the considered branch, the extent to which a posteriori calibrated, relative divergence time methods can disambiguate time and rate, is unclear. Here, we use forward evolutionary simulations and compare a priori and a posteriori c

SUBMITTER: Beavan AJS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7486956 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature