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The assertion that phylogenetic inference algorithms are not authoritarian because results are repeatable, predictable and freely available misses the point that the authority resides in underlying algorithm models that are not cladistic. We show that optimization procedures can group using symplesiomorphy and that optimization is not always equivalent to cladistic argumentation. Because parsim...

RASMUS HELLER1,2,∗, PETER FRANDSEN1, ELINE DEIRDRE LORENZEN3,4, AND HANS R. SIEGISMUND1 1Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Ole Maaløes Vej 5, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark; 2Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Rua da Quinta Grande 6, P-2780-156 Oeiras, Portugal; 3Department of Integrative Biology, University of California Berkeley, 1005 Valley Life Sciences Building, Berkeley, CA 94...

e i t a Phylogenetic reconstruction has undergone numerous developments in tree selection criteria (e.g., phenetics, cladistics, maximum-likelihood), available data sources (morphology versus molecules, and subsets of the latter), and practical limits on study size. Together with study age, I examined the effects of these variables on inferences of phylogeny for the mammalian order Carnivora. T...