MODELING STRATIGRAPHIC RANGES ON PHYLOGENETIC TREES (Invited Presentation)

The fossil record provides important information about the diversification of lineages over time. Phylogenetic estimation of species relationships and divergence times offers another approach for understanding macroevolutionary patterns and processes. There are limitations, however, to considering lineage diversification using a purely phylogenetic or a purely paleontological perspective. Phylogenetic analyses of fossil and extant taxa typically do not make full use of the available fossil data, nor do they account for how the fossil record is sampled and structured. Paleontological approaches for understanding the dynamics of fossil taxa often ignore the underlying phylogenetic structure of the diversification process. The fossilized birth-death family of models provides a phylogenetic framework for integrating paleontological and neontological data while treating the fossil occurrences as stratigraphic ranges and/or single specimens. Our recent work extends these models to account for the complex nature of the fossil record and enables estimation of time-heterogenous rates of speciation, extinction, and fossil recovery. Simulations provide tests of the accuracy and power of Bayesian inference under the fossilized birth-death process for stratigraphic range data.