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New Zealand Statistics Conference
September 1, 2000
University of Canterbury
Christchurch, New Zealand

Organizers
Dr Marco Reale, Prof Malcolm Faddy, Dr Irene Hudson, Doris Barnard, Julian Visch

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A Simple Stochastic Model of Evolution
by
Andy McKenzie
Biomathematics Research Centre, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Canterbury
Coauthors: Mike Steel (University of Canterbury)

We investigate some properties of evolutionary trees generated under a simple stochastic model of speciation. This model has been used to supply prior probabilities in Bayesian approaches to phylogenetic analysis, and also to test hypotheses concerning the speciation process.

Firstly, we find the probability distribution for the distance of a randomly chosen species from the root of the tree. Next, we find a formula for the mean distance between two randomly chosen species. Finally, we show that the approximate position of the root can be estimated from the associated unrooted tree, even for trees with a large number of species.

Date received: August 17, 2000

Copyright © 2000 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # cadt-24.