Investigating the reliability of molecular estimates of evolutionary time when substitution rates and speciation rates vary.

ABSTRACT:

Background

An accurate timescale of evolutionary history is essential to testing hypotheses about the influence of historical events and processes, and the timescale for evolution is increasingly derived from analysis of DNA sequences. But variation in the rate of molecular evolution complicates the inference of time from DNA. Evidence is growing for numerous factors, such as life history and habitat, that are linked both to the molecular processes of mutation and fixation and to rates of macroevolutionary diversification. However, the most widely used methods rely on idealised models of rate variation, such as the uncorrelated and autocorrelated clocks, and molecular dating methods are rarely tested against complex models of rate change. One relationship that is not accounted for

SUBMITTER: Ritchie AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9088092 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature