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PARSIMONY AND CHARACTER WEIGHTING
Author(s) -
SOBER ELLIOTT
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
cladistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.323
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1096-0031
pISSN - 0748-3007
DOI - 10.1111/j.1096-0031.1986.tb00440.x
Subject(s) - character (mathematics) , weighting , argument (complex analysis) , point (geometry) , mathematics , biology , physics , geometry , biochemistry , acoustics
— The likelihood justification of parsimony proposed in Sober (1983, 1984a) is applied to some problems posed by character weighting. An argument is provided for thinking that the point frequency of a character is not a good descriptor for parsimonious reconstructions of phylogeny. The idea that a good character will be conservative or nonadaptive is also examined from a likelihood point of view.