Inferences from tip‐calibrated phylogenies: a review and a practical guide

Molecular dating of phylogenetic trees is a growing discipline using sequence data to co‐estimate the timing of evolutionary events and rates of molecular evolution. All molecular‐dating methods require converting genetic divergence between sequences into absolute time. Historically, this could only be achieved by associating externally derived dates obtained from fossil or biogeographical evidence to internal nodes of the tree. In some cases,...