Martin R. Smith

Martin R. Smith

@palaeosmith.bsky.social

Palaeontologist developing phylogenetic and stratigraphic methods to understand the origins of life's rich diversity

106 followers7 following25 posts

Martin R. Smith
@palaeosmith.bsky.social

Try it in R: constree.github.io/reference/Qu...

constree.github.ioConsensus tree that minimizes quartet distance — QuartetQuartet() constructs a consensus tree that minimizes the sum of symmetric quartet distances to a set of input trees, using a greedy add-and-prune heuristic.
Hoyaboya@hoyaboya1.bsky.social

Takazawa et al. (2026-10, Systematic Biology) Improving the resolution and informativity of the majority-rule consensus tree using fine-grained dissimilarity measures doi.org/10.1093/sysb...

doi.orgImproving the resolution and informativity of the majority-rule consensus tree using fine-grained dissimilarity measuresAbstract. Phylogenetic analyses often require the summarization of multiple trees, e.g., in Bayesian analyses to obtain the centroid of the posterior distr
Martin R. Smith
@palaeosmith.bsky.social

My new package Coreset is now on CRAN. ms609.github.io/Coreset/ Use its MaxMin Diversity selector to obtain an unbiased and representative subsample of most parsimonious trees (paper forthcoming...)

ms609.github.ioDiscrete Diversity, Dispersion, and Coverage Subset SelectionSolves discrete location objectives on a distance matrix or Euclidean coordinate set. The Max-Min Diversity (MMDP / p-dispersion) objective, which maximizes the minimum pairwise distance within a sele...
Martin R. Smith
@palaeosmith.bsky.social

A particularly interesting approach uses tree search to find the tree that's closest (by quartet distance) to the trees being summarized www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... How does this work for your datasets?

biorxiv.orgOutperforming the Majority-Rule Consensus Tree Using Fine-Grained Dissimilarity MeasuresPhylogenetic analyses often require the summarization of multiple trees, e.g., in Bayesian analyses to obtain the centroid of the posterior distribution of trees, or to determine the consensus of a se...

Martin R. Smith reposted

Andrew Millard
@archaeometer.bsky.social

Our new paper is out: StratoBayes: a Bayesian method for automated stratigraphic correlation and age modelling doi.org/10.5194/gchr... with @palaeosmith.bsky.social Kilian Eichenseer & Matthias Sinnesael

doi.orgStratoBayes: a Bayesian method for automated stratigraphic correlation and age modellingAbstract. Stratigraphic correlation and age modelling are fundamental to reconstructing Earth's history, biological evolution, and palaeoclimate, and underpin the exploration for subsurface resources....
Martin R. Smith
@palaeosmith.bsky.social

A Cambrian arms race? www.cell.com/current-biol...

cell.comAdaptive responses in Cambrian predator and prey highlight the arms race during the rise of animalsBicknell et al. explore the hypothesis that predation was a major ecological driver of early animal evolution. A study of the early Cambrian tommotiid Lapworthella fasciculata shows a correlation between increasing shell thickness and predation intensity (evidenced by perforations) over time, representing the oldest known microevolutionary arms race.

Martin R. Smith reposted

Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University, UK
@durhamearthsci.bsky.social

🚨Job Alert!🚨 We are recruiting an Associate Professor in Environmental Sustainability! The post is associated with a new MSc in Environmental Sustainability which is due to start in October 2026. Please apply by 31 January, and please share this with your networks! durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

durham.taleo.netAssociate Professor in Environmental Sustainability (EARTH_01)Click the link provided to see the complete job description.

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