Ten to twenty years ago, or so, there was a great deal of literature published on tree shape, tree balance and tree asymmetry. The general questions of interest were the pattern of diversification, based on the argument that the shape of the tree would relate to particular patterns of speciation and extinction.
Since that time, tree shape has been less and less discussed while the use of likelihood estimation of diversification rate parameters has become popular. If (hypothetically) we can obtain estimates of p and q (the rates of branching and termination) and test for differences , is there anything else left for tree shape analysis to tell us?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Are Chan and Moore's (2002) methods for detecting diversification rate variation among lineages based on "tree shape?" I am not familiar with the tree shape literature but it seems that their methods are based somewhat on tree shape thinking. Of course 2002 is pretty long ago so maybe their methods are out of date anyway.
ReplyDeleteRicklefs 2007 suggests that there is a use for tests of tree imbalance to see whether the assumption of homogenous rates across clades is valid and/or as a first step followed by hypotheses about the origins of the imbalance. I wonder if significant tree imbalance would have been detected under the scenarios Rabosky 2010 looked at.
ReplyDelete