phytools: resolveNode – R documentation

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resolveNode

Compute all possible resolutions of a node or all nodes in a multifurcating tree

Description

This functions resolves a single multifurcation or all multifurcations in a tree in all possible ways. If the input tree has edge lengths, then the resolutions will use internal edges of zero length.

Usage

resolveNode(tree,node)
resolveAllNodes(tree)

Arguments

`tree`	an object of class `"phylo"`.
`node`	for `resolveNode`, the node with a polytomy to resolve.

Details

For resolveNode applied to a multifurcation with n descendants, the number of resolved trees will be equal to the number of possible rooted trees of n taxa. (For instance, three for a trifurcation, 15 for a quadrifurcation, and so on.)

For resolveAllNodes the number of fully resolved trees will be equal to the product of numbers for resolveNode applied to each multifurcation separately. (For instance, 45 for a tree containing one trifurcation and one quadrifurcation.)

Value

An object of class "multiPhylo" - or, if the input tree is already fully resolved, an object of class "phylo" indentical to tree.

Author(s)

Liam Revell liam.revell@umb.edu

References

Revell, L. J. (2012) phytools: An R package for phylogenetic comparative biology (and other things). Methods Ecol. Evol., 3, 217-223.