PlaceMyFossils: An integrative approach to analyse and visualize the phylogenetic placement of fossils using backbone trees

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in using morphology to establish the placement of species on phylogenetic trees derived from molecular data. This is relevant in the case of recently extinct or fossil species, which are usually represented only by fragmentary morphology. In the latter case, constrained analyses using backbone trees have also proven helpful in evaluating the placement of fragmentary specimens on phylogenetic trees derived from morphological data. Consequently, several available phylogenetic programs now include functions to run constrained searches. However, a comprehensive evaluation of the results obtained is not readily available within existing analytical tools. Here, we present an integrated approach—PlaceMyFossils—specifically designed to (1) thoroughly evaluate the phylogenetic placement of given query species (especially fossils) on a reference tree, (2) determine which characters and character partitions are most relevant in defining the phylog..., , , # PlaceMyFossils: An integrative approach to analyse and visualize the phylogenetic placement of fossils using backbone trees

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zn2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zn2)

## **Description of the Data and File Structure**

The submission includes the datasets (matrices and reference trees) used in the two empirical examples shown in the main text.

**Files and Variables**

**Description:**
This folder contains the datasets required to run the two empirical analyses described in the main text. Phylogenetic matrices and trees are provided in different formats suitable for analyses in **TNT**, **RAxML**, and **MrBayes**.

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**Araucariaceae_example**

The folder **\"Datasets\"** includes three phylogenetic matrices used for the Araucariaceae example presented in the main text.

* The file **Araucariaceae_extant_plus_Agathis_immortalis.tnt** contains a matrix in **TNT** format, used in the analyses shown in Figures 3 and 4 of the main text.
* The file ...,