Statistical Sciences and Evolutionary Biology with Special Reference to Phylogeny Estimation

Abstract

Contemporary evolutionary biology has used various statistical methods for collecting and analyzing data. Here methods for estimating phylogenetic trees are reviewed in the context of recent history of evolutionary biology, especially of systematics and phylogenetics. Estimating evolutionary history based on character data (molecular or morphological) poses a couple of epistemological problems all of which are common to historical sciences in general. Karl Popper's philosophy of science, in particular, his theory of falsification and corroboration has been espoused by many theoretical phylogeneticists. In this paper the long-standing controversy on philosophical aspects of phylogenetics and its implications for statistical methods in this discipline is discussed.