Biogeographic calibrations for the molecular clock

Abstract

Molecular estimates of evolutionary timescales have an important role in a range of biological studies. Such estimates can bemade usingmethods based onmolecular clocks, includingmodels that are able to account for rate variation across lineages.All clockmodels share a dependence on calibrations,which enable estimates to be given in absolute time units. There are many available methods for incorporating fossil calibrations, but geological and climatic data can also provide useful calibrations for molecular clocks. However, a number of strong assumptions need to be made when using these biogeographic calibrations, leading to wide variation in their reliability and precision. In this review, we describe the nature of biogeographic calibrations and the assumptions that they involve. We present an overview of the different geological and climatic events that can provide informative calibrations, and explain howsuch temporal information can be incorporated into dating analyses.