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TraitLab is a software package for simulating, fitting and analysing tree-like binary data under a stochastic Dollo model of evolution. It was developed as a tool to reconstruct language history using lexical data, but can be applied to other types of data as well. It is freely available on GitHub and runs within the Matlab computing environment.

Features include:

• • a model of trait evolution which forbids homoplasy: each trait can only be born once on the tree

  • a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampler to estimate jointly the tree structure, all node ages, and model parameters

  • rate heterogeneity through "catastrophes", punctual events where many trait changes occur simultaneously

  • handling of missing data and of data thinning

  • a separate GUI to simulate synthetic data from a number of more general models, including borrowing (horizontal transfer), heterogeneity of rates and biases in the data collection

  • graphical and analytical tools to check the model fit and the MCMC convergence

TraitLab was developed by Luke Kelly (Univ. College Cork), Geoff Nicholls (Univ. Oxford), Robin Ryder (Univ. Paris-Dauphine) and David Welch (Univ. Auckland).