GeoPhyloBuilder for ArcGIS v1.2 released

GeoPhyloBuilder for ArcGIS v1.2 introduced two new tip-fan options, 'Internal+' and 'Drop' which with 'Internal' and 'Tip' makes four tip-fan options.

The release also fixes bugs in the positioning of nodes and branches when placed using overlap and disjunction between sister clades.

GeoPhyloBuilder for ArcGIS v1.2 can be download from SourceForge.

Overlap-Disjunction Analysis Geophylogeny

In overlap-disjunction analysis tree nodes are placed at the centroid of the region of disjunction or overlap between sister clade ranges.

An ODA geophylogeny ofthe Goodeidae is displayed against four palaeohydrological models for Central Mexico. Five clades are identified by colour and observations treated as polytomies of their first internal node. The direction circle has a radius of 100km. Box divisions are every 5 million years from present (bottom).

A Macroscope of Evolution

Microscopes allow us to see very small things, similarly macroscopes help us see very big things.

The evolution of life on earth is a very large thing indeed. It has existed more than 2 billion years and extends over 500 million square kilometers. It is currently composed of at least 4 million species, believed to be a small fraction of the total number that have ever lived. Each species is composed of many individuals that vary in morphology, genetics and behaviour. All these individuals are linked through an often tree-like space-time network of common descent, which formed by interacting with the planet, and with itself.

That's pretty big and complicated!

One way of understanding entities that extend over wide ranges of spatial and temporal scales is to plot information against logarithmic axes of space and time. In my macroscope of evolution objects of study, biological processes, scientific disciples and structures generated are shown.