14. Symmetric Beta Prior
↵ =
Figure from Wright et al. 2016,
model implemented in MrBayes,
Ronquist and Huelsenbeck 2003
Percentage of transitions
0 to 1
1 to 0
15. Symmetric Beta Prior
↵ =
Figure from Wright et al. 2016,
model implemented in MrBayes,
Ronquist and Huelsenbeck 2003
Percentage of transitions
0 to 1
1 to 0
16. Ant Morphological Data
Image by Steve Shattuck
Ants have a rich fossil record, including many stem lineages,
as well as many scored specimens from extant lineages
17. Ant Morphological Data
Image by Steve Shattuck
Presence of wasplike
features that
are lost after
divergence of
Sphecomyrminae
from the rest of
the ants
1 0
18. Ant Morphological Data
Image by Steve Shattuck
Presence of wasplike
features that
are lost after
divergence of
Sphecomyrminae
from the rest of
the ants
1 0
Presence of ant
apomorphies
0 1
19. Ant Morphological Data
Image by Steve Shattuck
Presence of wasplike
features that
are lost after
divergence of
Sphecomyrminae
from the rest of
the ants
1 0
Presence of ant
apomorphies
0 1
Strong violation of equal
transition rates model
20. Ant Morphological Data
Image by Steve Shattuck
• Recoded characters from Barden
and Grimaldi 2016; Keller 2011
• 164 characters, 135 taxa
21. Ant Morphological Data
Image by Steve Shattuck
• Recoded characters from Barden
and Grimaldi 2016; Keller 2011
• 164 characters, 135 taxa
byfir001
22. Symmetric Beta Prior
↵ =
Figure from Wright et al. 2016,
model implemented in MrBayes,
Ronquist and Huelsenbeck 2003
Percentage of transitions
0 to 1
1 to 0
30. Symmetric Beta Prior
↵ =
This is a special case of the asymmetrical Beta
Percentage of transitions
0 to 1
1 to 0
31. Asymmetric Beta Prior
We also implemented a multistate generalization
in which state frequencies are drawn from a Dirichlet
prior of k dimensions
32. Ant Morphological Data
• Recoded from Barden and
Grimaldi 2016; Keller 2011
• 164 characters, 135 taxa
Image by Steve Shattuck
byfir001
33. Ant Morphological Data
• Estimated phylogeny
from binary data sets
using discrete Beta
model
Image by Steve Shattuck
byfir001
34. Ant Morphological Data
• Estimated phylogeny
from binary data sets
using discrete Beta
model
• Phylogeny using
binary + multistate
data with generalized
Beta model
Image by Steve Shattuck
byfir001
54. Conclusions
• Allowing for transition rate asymmetry in both
binary and multistate characters is very helpful in
this dataset
55. Conclusions
• Allowing for transition rate asymmetry in both
binary and multistate characters is very helpful in
this dataset
• The number of transition symmetry categories is
detectable with Bayes factor model fitting
56. Conclusions
• Allowing for transition rate asymmetry in both
binary and multistate characters is very helpful in
this dataset
• The number of transition symmetry categories is
detectable with Bayes factor model fitting
• Resolving ant phylogenetic relationships remains
challenging, but hopeful
57. Thank You
The Heath Lab
Tracy Heath
Walker Pett
Jordan Satler
Kevin Quinteros
Wade Dismukes
Roberta Graboski Mendes
Andre Flores
Patrick Mendoza
Helpful
Discussions
Corrie Moreau
Paul Lewis
Benjamin Blanchard
Philip Barden
Mark Holder
DEB-1556615, DEB-1256993
DBI-1612858
revbayes.github.io