That seems correct to me. The probability that the tree died out before the 
first speciation event (which is excluded, as Liam says) is d/(b+d).

Also Tanya Stader's TreeSim package can deal with this issue more directly. For 
example her function sim.bd.taxa.age has a flag for mrca: 

> If mrca = FALSE: The time since the origin of the process. If mrca = TRUE:
> The time since the most recent common ancestor of the sampled species.


--Luke

On Apr 27, 2011, at 9:39 AM, Liam J. Revell wrote:

> Hi Jonathan,
> 
> I believe that the proper way to do this will depend on whether you are using 
> "time.stop" or "taxa.stop".
> 
> If you are using taxa.stop, say with b, d, and taxa.stop=N, then I think that 
> you should do this:
> 
> tree<-birthdeath.tree(b,d,taxa.stop=N)
> tree$root.edge<-rexp(n=1,rate=(b+d))
> 
> If you are using time.stop, with stopping time T, then I think you should do 
> this:
> 
> rt<-rexp(n=1,rate=(b+d))
> tree<-birthdeath.tree(b,d,time.stop=T-rt) # if T>rt
> tree$root.edge<-rt
> 
> In both cases, you get only trees that did not go extinct along the root edge 
> (that is, you exclude trees that went extinct before the first speciation).
> 
> If this is not quite correct, I'm sure that Dan R. or Luke H. (or others) can 
> correct me.
> 
> - Liam
> 
> -- 
> Liam J. Revell
> University of Massachusetts Boston
> web: http://faculty.umb.edu/liam.revell/
> email: [email protected]
> blog: http://phytools.blogspot.com
> 
> On 4/27/2011 11:47 AM, Jonathan Hughes wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Howdy,
>> 
>> I'm simulating trees using geiger's birthdeath.tree function. However, it 
>> already starts with two living lineages. I'd like to start with a single 
>> lineage and include that root node. Is there some other function that I'm 
>> missing? Or should I simply add ":bl;" to the end of the simulated 
>> phylogeny, where "bl" would be a branch of length 1/speciation rate?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Jonathan
>>                                      
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>> 
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Luke Harmon
Assistant Professor
Biological Sciences
University of Idaho
208-885-0346
[email protected]




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