Character Evolution

The evolution of characters (measurements, observations) among taxa (species, genes) can be studied both to infer history and interpret processes of change.

• History: Reconstruction of ancestral states (Parsimony methods for molecular, categorical and continuous data; Likelihood methods for categorical data; Stochastic character mapping)
• Processes of character evolution: parameters and correlations (Estimating parameters of one and two parameter models for categorical characters; Pagel's 1994 correlation test; Felsenstein's Independent Contrasts; Pairwise comparisons tests of character correlation; Visualizations to explore character correlations)