Hallo, dear morphometters, I need an advise of yours on the subject which lies a little bit aside of the topics of this forum.
I study structure of within-species variation based on the euclidian metrics. The distance matrices are routinally represented graphically by phenograms. However, there is a serious problem of evaluation of reliability and number of hierarchical levels recognized in the given tree topology. The one decision might be based on analysis of distribution of patrisitic distances, but again the problem of probabilistic assessemens of non-zero distanmces remains which, in its turn might be resolved by Monte Carlo simulations. However, to me perslonally, bootstrapping pocedure looks more attractive as it allows more straitforward bilogoical interpretation of numerical supports of the tree branchs. I attempted myself to do that, and preliminary results appear to be promising. So, the question is, if there is anybody here knowning study cases in which bootstrap is applied to phenograms and not to cladograms, and correctness of such an application is considered. If someone knows these cases, I would be extremely greatful for the references. It's needless to say that any comments and ideas would be highly appreciated. Yours sincerely, Igor -- Replies will be sent to the list. For more information visit http://www.morphometrics.org
