title: Inferring node dates from tip dates in fossil Canidae: the importance of tree priors.
abstract: Tip-dating methods are becoming popular alternatives to traditional node calibration approaches for building time-scaled phylogenetic trees, but questions remain about their application to empirical datasets. We compared the performance of the most popular methods against a dated tree of fossil Canidae derived from previously published monographs. Using a canid morphology dataset, we performed tip-dating using BEAST v. 2.1.3 and MrBayes v. 3.2.5. We find that for key nodes (Canis, approx. 3.2 Ma, Caninae approx. 11.7 Ma) a non-mechanistic model using a uniform tree prior produces estimates that are unrealistically old (27.5, 38.9 Ma). Mechanistic models (incorporating lineage birth, death and sampling rates) estimate ages that are closely in line with prior research. We provide a discussion of these two families of models (mechanistic versus non-mechanistic) and their applicability to fossil datasets.
authors: Moritz Laboratory, Division of Ecology, Evolution, and Genetics, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia nick.matzke@anu.edu.au.
authors: Nicholas J
authors: 0000-0002-8698-7656
authors: NJ
authors: Matzke
authors: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-4009, USA Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
authors: April
authors: A
authors: Wright
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D046028:Canidae; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005580:Fossils; D010802:Phylogeny; D013995:Time
keywords: BEASTmasteR; Canidae; MrBayes; tip-dating; total evidence dating; uniform tree prior