Support versus corroboration

Numerous metrics have been developed that attempt to assess the reliability of phylogenetic trees. Several of these commonly used measures of tree and tree branch support are described and discussed in the context of their relationship to Popperian corroboration. Claims that measures of support indicate the accuracy of phylogenetic trees or provide information for tree choice are rebutted. Measures of support are viewed as being of heuristic value within a given phylogenetic framework for describing the precision of the data based on perturbations to the data. However, no direct link is observed between the calculation of measures of support and corroboration. Direct measures of support, but not re-sampling or randomization methods, may play a more specific role in phylogenetic inference by providing the tools to search for falsifiers that could be the subject of future rounds of hypothesis testing.