Timeline for In calculating the retention index, why do we use the character state with the lowest frequency?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
4 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 2 at 9:54 | comment | added | ms609 | "maximum number of steps" corresponds to the maximum number of steps that can be reconstructed using Fitch parsimony. Five changes from 0→1 is possible, but less parsimonious than two changes from 1→0. Less parsimonious still, but still compatible with the data, is a million unobserved steps from 0→1 and back again. | |
| Oct 25, 2018 at 15:54 | comment | added | Namenlos | Thank you for this. Could you just edit your answer to explain why in the scenario you sketch above the five-time occurrence of character state 1 is not used in calculating the maximum number of steps? What I find confusing is that if character state 1 occurs five times, could that not represent five independent (i.e., homoplasious) character state changes? | |
| Oct 25, 2018 at 15:15 | history | edited | Kohl Kinning | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
clarifcation
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| Oct 25, 2018 at 14:48 | history | answered | Kohl Kinning | CC BY-SA 4.0 |