Comparison of functions for comparative phylogenetics

Scott Chamberlain




With all the packages (and beta stage groups of functions) for comparative phylogenetics in R (tested here: picante, geiger, ape, motmot, Liam Revell's functions), I was simply interested in which functions to use in cases where multiple functions exist to do the same thing. I only show default settings, so perhaps these functions would differ under different parameter settings.  [I am using a Mac 2.4 GHz i5, 4GB RAM]

Get motmot here: https://r-forge.r-project.org/R/?group_id=782
Get Liam Revell's functions here: http://anolis.oeb.harvard.edu/~liam/R-phylogenetics/


> # Load 
require(motmot); require(geiger); require(picante)
source("http://anolis.oeb.harvard.edu/~liam/R-phylogenetics/phylosig/v0.3/phylosig.R")
source("http://anolis.oeb.harvard.edu/~liam/R-phylogenetics/fastBM/v0.4/fastBM.R")
 
# Make tree
tree <- rcoal(10)
 




# Transform branch lengths
> system.time( replicate(1000, transformPhylo(tree, model = "lambda", lambda = 0.5)) ) # motmot
user system elapsed
1.757 0.004 1.762
> system.time( replicate(1000, lambdaTree(tree, 0.9)) ) # geiger
user system elapsed
3.708 0.008 3.716
> # motmot wins!!!


# Simulate trait evolution
system.time( replicate(1000, transformPhylo.sim(tree, model = "bm")) ) # motmot
user system elapsed
3.732 0.007 3.741
> system.time( replicate(1000, rTraitCont(tree, model = "BM")) ) # ape
user system elapsed
0.312 0.009 0.321
> system.time( replicate(1000, fastBM(tree)) ) # Revell
user system elapsed
1.315 0.005 1.320
> # ape wins!!!

# Phylogenetically independent contrasts
trait <- rnorm(10)
names(trait) <- tree$tip.label
 
> system.time( replicate(10000, pic.motmot(trait, tree)$contr[,1]) ) # motmot
user system elapsed
3.062 0.007 3.070
> system.time( replicate(10000, pic(trait, tree)) ) # ape
user system elapsed
2.846 0.007 2.853
> # ape wins!!!

# Phylogenetic signal, Blomberg's K
> system.time( replicate(100, Kcalc(trait, tree)) ) # picante
user system elapsed
1.311 0.005 1.316
> system.time( replicate(100, phylosig(tree, trait, method = "K")) ) # Revell
user system elapsed
0.201 0.000 0.202
> # Liam Revell wins!!!

# Ancestral character state estimation
> system.time( replicate(100, ace(trait, tree)$ace) ) # ape
user system elapsed
4.988 0.018 5.007
> system.time( replicate(100, getAncStates(trait, tree)) ) # geiger
user system elapsed
2.253 0.005 2.258
> # geiger wins!!!

Created by Pretty R at inside-R.org


__________
It's hard to pick an overall winner because not all functions are available in all packages, but there are definitely some functions that are faster than others.

Posted in  Evolution ape Phylogenetics R motmot


blog comments powered by Disqus
Fork me on GitHub