Interpreting treeannotator output

[Jim Schulte]

I'm using the BEAST 1.6 and when I parse my trees in Treeannotator it
outputs several stats listed below in the tree that I open in
FigTree. What is not obvious to me (which probably should be) is
which of these is the actual estimate of the age in millions of
years. I thought it would be the heights but I'm not sure. I am using
fossil calibrations for my analysis and using the default values in
TreeAnnotator (Target tree type: Max. clade credibility tree; and
Node heights: Keep target heights).
Essentially, is it the height or length that is the age and is the
length just as I think and just the branch length estimates?
height
height_range
height_95%_HPD
height_median
length
length_median
length_range
length_95%_HPD

The rates are obvious and I can figure out which these are:
rate
rate_median
rate_range
rate_95%_HPD

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Suzanne Williams]

Height corresponds to age, with median, range and 95% HPD just what they
say,but 'height' alone is the age of the node for the particular tree you
are examining and depends on the choice you make in TreeAnnotator. If you
had chosen to produce a tree using median heights then this would be the
same as height_median, however given your choice there's a good chance that
its different.

'Length' is length of a single branch, and may or may not correspond to
height as several branches may contribute to the height.

I hope that helps.

Suzanne