Meeting Abstract

1.1  Tuesday, Jan. 4  Estimating evolutionary rates from incomplete phylogenies and data using approximate Bayesian computation SLATER, GJ*; HARMON, LJ; REVELL, LJ; ALFARO, ME; Univ. of California, Los Angeles; Univ. of Idaho, Moscow; NESCent; Univ. of California, Los Angeles gslater@ucla.edu

The scientific literature contains a wealth of quantitative data that could provide great insights into the pace of of phenotypic evolution across the tree of life. An obstacle to using these data is the lack of completely sampled phylogenies for most higher level clades. Here we present a method to infer rates of trait evolution, as well as diversification rate parameters, from incompletely sampled phylogenies and summary trait data using approximate Bayesian computation (ABC). We demonstrate how our likelihood free method works and extend it to compare single and two rate models within a fully Bayesian framework using an empirical example.