Using information theory to detect rogue taxa and improve consensus trees
Channel: Martin R. Smith
Date: 26/11/2021

“Rogue” taxa of uncertain phylogenetic position ("wildcards") can confound attempts to summarise phylogenetic results. By reducing resolution and support values in consensus trees, rogues potentially obscure strong evidence for relationships between other taxa.
My information-theoretic measure of the congruence between a set of trees and their consensus allows rogue taxa to be identified more effectively, thus producing reduced consensus trees that are better resolved, more accurate, and more informative than those generated by existing methods.