ABSTRACT
Minimum evolution assesses the total distance that would be needed for multiple tree topologies and chooses the one where the amount of distance needed is minimal. The maximum likelihood approach involves character-by-character assessment of the probabilities of change and is thus computationally intensive. The procedure uses a model of sequence change to estimate the likelihood, given the various trees and the model, that the data would exist. Transformation and probability matrices are used to address the probabilities of character-state changes.
