Document Details

Document Type : Article In Journal 
Document Title :
The fossilized birth-death process for coherent calibration of divergence-time estimates
The fossilized birth-death process for coherent calibration of divergence-time estimates
 
Document Language : English 
Abstract : Time-calibrated species phylogenies are critical for addressing a wide range of questions in evolutionary biology, such as those that elucidate historical biogeography or uncover patterns of coevolution and diversification. Because molecular sequence data are not informative on absolute time, external data-most commonly, fossil age estimates-are required to calibrate estimates of species divergence dates. For Bayesian divergence time methods, the common practice for calibration using fossil information involves placing arbitrarily chosen parametric distributions on internal nodes, often disregarding most of the information in the fossil record. We introduce the "fossilized birth-death" (FBD) process-a model for calibrating divergence time estimates in a Bayesian framework, explicitly acknowledging that extant species and fossils are part of the same macroevolutionary process. Under this model, absolute node age estimates are calibrated by a single diversification model and arbitrary calibration densities are not necessary. Moreover, the FBD model allows for inclusion of all available fossils. We performed analyses of simulated data and show that node age estimation under the FBD model results in robust and accurate estimates of species divergence times with realistic measures of statistical uncertainty, overcoming major limitations of standard divergence time estimation methods. We used this model to estimate the speciation times for a dataset composed of all living bears, indicating that the genus Ursus diversified in the Late Miocene to Middle Pliocene. 
ISSN : 0027-8424 
Journal Name : PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
Volume : 111 
Issue Number : 29 
Publishing Year : 1435 AH
2014 AD 
Article Type : Article 
Added Date : Monday, July 31, 2017 

Researchers

Researcher Name (Arabic)Researcher Name (English)Researcher TypeDr GradeEmail
Tracy HeathHeath, Tracy Researcher  
John HuelsenbeckHuelsenbeck, John Researcher  
Tanja StadlerStadler, Tanja Researcher  

Files

File NameTypeDescription
 42362.pdf pdf 

Back To Researches Page