Re: Morpho v molecular (was Re: Tinamous: living dinosaurs)

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

>  The signal/noise ratio is more interesting than the absolute amount
>  of signal for easy calculations of branch support ("easy" maning
>  those that only consider the best-supported pairing and not
>  "almost-as-good" alternatives). IF you compare the support for ALL
>  POSSIBLE sisters of one branch, then indeed the signal should
>  conspicuously add up. But if you don't, adding noise simply increases
>  support for alternate (non-most-likely/-most-parsimonous) sisters but
>  you won't know which, while decreasing support for the most
>  likely/most parsimonious one.

Isn't this already how bootstrap, for example, works? In particular, 
have a look at the table that PAUP* puts out under the bootstrap tree. 
It lists all groupings that occur in 5 or more % of the trees. Sometimes 
there are surprises in there.