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Is the PTP Test Useful?
Author(s) -
Slowinski Joseph B,
Crother Brian I
Publication year - 1998
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.1096-0031.1998.tb00340.x
Subject(s) - bootstrapping (finance) , test (biology) , statistics , confidence interval , set (abstract data type) , mathematics , data set , test set , phylogenetic tree , algorithm , computer science , econometrics , biology , ecology , gene , programming language , biochemistry
We show empirically that the PTP test has very little discriminatory power, with highly significant PTP test probabilities often being associated with parsimony data that produce trees with low confidence (as measured by bootstrapping) and resolution. Because of this, we argue that the PTP test is useful only in the following, very limited way: if a data set fails the PTP test, it should not be used in a phylogenetic analysis. More conservative methods of measuring confidence such as the bootstrap or decay index are preferable.