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Bayesian Phylogenetics

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large tree with wide branches on a foggy day

BAYESIAN PHYLOGENETICS. Quercus lobata, Valley oak.
Dish Trail between Stanford Gate and Frenchman’s Gate, looking northeast.

In a Bayesian perspective on phylogenetic inference, uncertainty exists about the nature of a phylogenetic tree. Similarly to other areas of Bayesian inference, the analysis starts with a prior distribution of possible trees. Data representing genetic sequences that have evolved on the unknown tree are examined, providing information about trees that are more likely to be the tree that has generated the data. The output of the inference procedure is a posterior distribution that reduces uncertainty regarding the unknown tree.

Photo: Noah Rosenberg, December 9, 2018