[Taxacom] phylogenetic software for undergrad class

[Lena Struwe]

Hi everybody -

If you have to teach just one basic lab for students where they have to 
run a simple phylogenetic analysis of DNA+morphology and using parsimony 
and likelihood, what software would you recommend that is user-friendly, 
free, easy to learn, and so on? This is just for a lab, not a whole 
class, and to get students to at least get a first hands-on experience 
with running a simple analysis. I would like to use a program that is 
visually pleasing, can handle at least small datasets, and uses the 
Nexus format for import. Any suggestions and recommendations?

best

Lena Struwe

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Dr. Lena Struwe
Associate Professor
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution,&  Natural Resources/ Dept. of Plant Biology&  Pathology
Rutgers University
237 Foran Hall, 59 Dudley Road
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8551, USA
phone: (732) 932-9711 ext. 235, fax: (732) 932-9441
e-mail: struwe at aesop.rutgers.edu
home page: www.rci.rutgers.edu/~struwe
GENTIAN RESEARCH NETWORK: http://gentian.rutgers.edu
Director, CHRYSLER HERBARIUM: http://herbarium.rutgers.edu