[Taxacom] PhD course offered: Phylogenetic Systematics and Molecular Dating

[David Campbell]

>> Wonder if they will teach them to be honest about fossil calibrated molecular dates being minimal dates, rather than transform them into actual or maximal as is the usual (mis)practice.<<

Other common mispractice in molecular clock calculations include:
ignoring error bars (e.g., a rate from another paper becomes a
magically error-free rate; error in the fossil dating; error/variation
in the molecular data)

too few calibration points (in particular, use of more than 2 would be
an improvement)

failure to confirm the accuracy of the fossil datum (e.g., dates
lifted from the Paleobiology Database without verification when the
family assigments were incorrect due to homonym, near-homonym, and
wastebasket names)

failure to rigorously check if a molecular clock assumption holds up
(e.g., assuming a molecular clock as the null; not noticing discrepant
dates- a non-reticulate, rooted, three-taxon tree must have two
identical dates and a third either the same as the first two or
younger than the other two).

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
The Paleontological Research Institution
1259 Trumansburg Road
Ithaca NY 14850