Possible and Impossible Inferences From Reconstructed Evolutionary Processes using Phylogenies as an Example
Year: 2024
Type: preprint
Abstract: Our understanding of past evolutionary change is often based on reconstructions based on incomplete data, raising fundamental questions about the degree to which we can make reliable inferences about past evolutionary processes. This was demonstrated by Louca and Pennell (2020), who showed that each pure-birth process can be generated by an infinite number of birth-death processes. Here, I explore what it means to reconstruct past evolutionary change with three approaches from measure theory, group theory, and homotopy theory to better understand structural constraint and origins of (non)identifiability. As an example, the developed framework is applied to the case of birth-death processes.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Hohmann, Niklas
Language: English
Subfield: Paleontology
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4392538630