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Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications

Published on: January 19, 2018

The evolution of methods for establishing evolutionary timescales.

Philip C J Donoghue¹, Ziheng Yang²

¹School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK phil.donoghue@bristol.ac.uk.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences

|June 22, 2016

Summary

Fossils provide essential absolute time data for molecular clock dating, despite the fossil record

Keywords:

Bayesian inference divergence times fossils molecular clock dating node-calibrations tip-calibrations

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Area of Science:

Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
Molecular Phylogenetics

Background:

The fossil record is inherently incomplete, potentially distorting views of species divergence and extinction.
Molecular clock methods can estimate divergence times but rely on fossil data for absolute calibration.

Purpose of the Study:

To review methods for integrating fossil evidence into molecular clock dating analyses.
To discuss the utility and challenges of using fossil data for phylogeny estimation and ancestor identification.

Main Methods:

Review of node-calibration techniques, constraining divergence times with fossil probability densities.
Review of tip-calibration techniques, assigning dates to fossil species at the tree tips based on rock strata.
Discussion of potential biases and limitations associated with both calibration methods.

Main Results:

Fossils are indispensable for calibrating molecular clock analyses, providing absolute geological time constraints.
Node-calibrations can be arbitrary; tip-calibrations may be overly sensitive to priors and morphological evolution issues.
Both methods have limitations that require careful consideration when interpreting divergence times.

Conclusions:

Integrating fossil data into molecular clock analyses is crucial but requires careful methodological choices.
Understanding the limitations of fossil data and calibration methods is key to accurate phylogenetic inference.
Fossil evidence remains vital for understanding evolutionary history and identifying ancestral lineages.