TNT, a free program for phylogenetic analysis

Abstract

The main features of the phylogeny program TNT are discussed. Windows versions have a menu interface, while Macintosh and Linux versions are command‐driven. The program can analyze data sets with discrete (additive, non‐additive, step‐matrix) as well as continuous characters (evaluated with Farris optimization). Effective analysis of large data sets can be carried out in reasonable times, and a number of methods to help identifying wildcard taxa in the case of ambiguous data sets are implemented. A variety of methods for diagnosing trees and exploring character evolution is available in TNT, and publication‐quality tree‐diagrams can be saved as metafiles. Through the use of a number of native commands and a simple but powerful scripting language, TNT allows the user an enormous flexibility in phylogenetic analyses or simulations.