Tree Prior Causing -Infinity Error in BEAST v1.10.4

[Monisha Bharate]

Hello,

I am running a discrete phylogeographic analysis in BEAST v1.10.4, but the analysis fails during initialization with a "Total = -Infinity" error.

For my previous analyses in BEAST v2.7.7 used to generate a chronograph and tree files for biogeographic analyses in RASP, I specified a uniform prior on the root age with a minimum of 10.38 Ma and a maximum of 12 Ma, based on the estimated origin of the genus I am studying. I used the same root age prior when setting up the discrete phylogeographic analysis in BEAST v1.10.4 (I did not find the Traits tab in BEAST v2 and then decided to use BEAST v1).

However, with the uniform prior, the analysis terminates with the "Total = -Infinity" error. When I instead use a lognormal prior truncated to the same bounds (10.38–12 Ma), the analysis initializes and runs without any issues.

I was wondering whether using the truncated lognormal prior in this situation is an appropriate solution, or whether the uniform prior should also work and the error suggests that there is another issue with my model setup.

Thank you for your time and advice.

Sincerely,

Monisha