Figure 1

Example trees used in simulations. (a) Balanced 4-taxon trees with equal branch lengths used for basic data simulations. This tree shows one of the 11 sets of branches of different lengths. (b) Unrooted version of the tree in (a) used for branch length estimation. When the tree is unrooted it is clear that all branches are of equal length. (c) Balanced 8-taxon trees of equal branch lengths used to determine whether branch length estimation is affected by (1) the depth of the branch in the tree, and (2) the number of taxa. (d) Balanced 4-taxon trees with equal depth 1 branch lengths and the depth 2 branch half or double the length of the depth 1 branches. These trees were used for simulations to determine whether interactions among branch lengths affect branch length estimation accuracy.