This is an old revision of the document!


  • See also this page on the blog with details about phylogenetic analyses

Computer programs

  • raxml A tool for Phylogenetic Analysis and Post-Analysis of Large Phylogenies using Maximum Likelihood.
  • fasttree A alternative approach to RAxML. Much (much) faster, (marginally) less accurate?
  • ape (R package)
  • MrBayes A Bayesian approach to phylogenetic analyses. Much (much) slower, more accurate (?), phylogenetics analyses come with estimates of posterior distribution of model parameters.
  • SATé - Simultaneous Alignment and Tree Estimation Software package for inferring a sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree. The iterative algorithm involves repeated alignment and tree searching operations. The original data set is divided into smaller subproblems by a tree-based decomposition. These subproblems are aligned and further merged for phylogenetic tree inference.
  • Phylip Package of programs for inferring phylogenies.
  • Figtree Graphical viewer of phylogenetic trees
  • PAML Phylogenetic Analysis by Maximum Likelihood for protein and DNA sequences. Widely used to infer selection in specific species, tree branches, protein sequences (dn/ds).
  • Splitstree4 Application for computing unrooted phylogenetic networks from molecular sequence data. The nice GUI makes it a easy option for begineers.
  • Beast Framework for testing evolutionary hypotheses, based on MCMC (i.e. bayesian). Divergence date and Molecular clock models. See more info on this page