Phylogeny and divergence of the pinnipeds (Carnivora: Mammalia) assessed using a multigene dataset

Jeff W Higdon¹ , Olaf RP Bininda-Emonds² , Robin MD Beck³ and Steven H Ferguson⁴

¹Department of Geography, University of Manitoba, 501 University Crescent, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 2N6, Canada

²AG Systematik und Evolutionsbiologie, IBU – Fakultät V, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany

³School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia

⁴Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 501 University Crescent, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 2N6, Canada

author email corresponding author email

BMC Evolutionary Biology 2008, 8:216doi:10.1186/1471-2148-8-216


Published:	24 July 2008

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

After publication of our article [1], we discovered that one of the programs used to date the supertree, relDate v2.2 [2], contained a bug that can lead to errors in the date estimates it provides. The precise effect of the bug is dependent on tree shape, but it generally results in overestimates of divergence-time estimates, particularly for nodes that are closer topologically to the tips of the tree. It can potentially, however, affect every date estimate on a tree.