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Three-item analysis: Hierarchical representation and treatment of missing and inapplicable data

René ZARAGÜETA BAGILS & Estelle BOURDON

en Comptes Rendus Palevol 6 (6-7) - Pages 527-534

Published on 30 November 2007

This article is a part of the thematic issue Palaeobotany and evolution of the plants' world: Some current problems

Matrix-based methods, including parsimony programs, represent and treat missing data in the same way, such that every character-state is possible, and inapplicable data, such that every character state is impossible. This is because the hierarchical nature of homology assessments cannot be represented in taxon–character matrices. We show that the hierarchical representation of hypotheses of homology used in three-item analysis permits the accurate treatment of missing and inapplicable data.


Keywords:

Missing data, inapplicable data, matrix-based methods, taxon–character matrices, hierarchical representation of hypotheses of homology, three-item analysis

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