1. Overview

PyMsBayes provides a multi-processing interface to the comparative phylogeographic software packages dpp-msbayes and msBayes. More generally, PyMsBayes can serve as a multi-processing Python API for inferring comparative models of diversification via approximate Bayesian computation (ABC). For more details about the methods implemented in PyMsBayes checkout the background section. You should also be aware of relevant caveats before using the method. The package is written by Jamie Oaks.

PyMsBayes is essentially a multi-processing wrapper around some popular ABC tools. Executables of the following tools come bundled with PyMsBayes:

• dpp-msbayes
• msBayes
• ABCtoolbox
• euReject of the ABACUS package

Executables for Linux and Mac are included. The Linux executables are statically linked and should run on any 32-bit or 64-bit Linux system. The Mac executables are universal (built for architectures ppc, i386, and x86_64) and mostly statically-linked, and so should work on any Mac. But, Macs are weird, so no promises. See the “Installation” section for more details about installing the bundled tools.