Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!uunet!samsung!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!cica!iuvax!bionet!ARSUN.UTAH.EDU!rogers
From: rogers@ARSUN.UTAH.EDU (Alan R. Rogers)
Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio
Subject: phylogenetic autocorrelation
Message-ID: <9005301754.AA01918@arsun.utah.edu>
Date: 30 May 90 17:54:26 GMT
Sender: daemon@genbank.BIO.NET
Lines: 23

Joe Felsenstein comments:

>I don't get it -- your plot is pure noise, so what does it prove?  I think
>maybe it is a plot of residuals or something.  You must have meant something
>by it that wasn't explained.

So let me explain.  The vertical axis of the "pure noise" plot was the
correlation between the estimated phylogenetic values of X1 and X2, and the
horizontal axis is the true correlation (rho) of X1 and X2.  Cheverud, Dow, and
Leutenegger claim that the phylogenetic component carries no information
about rho, and that claim is supported by the graph.

>As for your statement that "I didn't believe this either but the results are
>as they claim,"  Well, I STILL don't believe that all of the information is
>in the specific component.  Successful estimation of rho from that component
>does not prove that it has all the information, just that it has some.

Me neither, but I am also at a loss to explain my own simulations.

Alan Rogers
 INTERNET: rogers@arsun.utah.edu
 USMAIL  : Dept. of Anthropology, Univ. of Utah, S.L.C., UT 84112
 PHONE   : (801) 581-5529