Taxon Sampling Affects Inferences of Macroevolutionary Processes from Phylogenetic Trees

Phylogenetic relationships across the Tree of Life form the basis for comparing and organizing the Earth's biodiversity. In addition to providing information about the evolution of individual genes, populations, or species, phylogenetic trees are often used to study broader evolutionary patterns. In particular, the shape of phylogenetic trees (e.g., the distribution of cladogenic events across the tree) has been used to understand broad speciation and extinction patterns (Raup et al.,