TaxMan: an online facility for the coding of continuous characters for cladistic analysis

TL;DR

TaxMan is a web-based tool that facilitates the coding of continuous characters for cladistic analysis using the underused homogeneous subset coding method, making it more accessible for phylogenetic studies.

Contribution

This paper introduces TaxMan, a novel web-based software that implements homogeneous subset coding for continuous data in phylogenetics, addressing previous lack of accessible tools.

Findings

Provides an easy-to-use online interface for data entry.

Automatically converts data into matrices compatible with tree-search software.

Enhances the incorporation of continuous data in phylogenetic analysis.

Abstract

A consensus is emerging that continuous (or metric) measures can be useful in phylogenetic systematics. Many of the methods for coding such characters, how- ever, employ elements that are arbitrary and therefore should be excluded from use in cladistic analysis. The continued use of such potentially inappropriate methods can be attributed to either their simplicity or the availability of computer programs specifically designed to produce data matrices using these methods. Conversely, one of the most suitable methods, homogeneous subset coding (HSC), is underused, probably due to the lack of a suitable software implementation for this somewhat complex procedure. This paper describes TaxMan, a Web-based facility for the coding of continuous data using HSC. Data are entered using a form accessible via any internet browser and are automatically converted to a matrix suitable for input into tree-searching software. This implementation of the HSC technique provides an uncomplicated procedure for the incorporation of metric data in phylogenetic systematics. The algorithmic implementation of the HSC procedure, and interpolation of the Studentised range and maximum modulus distributions required by it, is described in detail in appendices.