PAlaeontological STatistics - Update

Many of you will know how much I like the statistical package PAST (PAlaeontological STatistics ) devised by Øyvind Hammer at the Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo. This is a free software package that can be downloaded from the Internet and Øyvind is remarkable in that the package is continuously updated and refined. The latest version (2.16) can be downloaded at http://folk.uio.no/ohammer/past
Among the latest additions are: Box-Cox transformation with max likelihood estimation of lambda; Anderson-Darling normality test; Nearest neighbor point analysis: Plotting of distance histogram vs. expected distribution; Hangle (outline shape analysis) now includes 'Htree' fitting; Coefficient of variation: Now with bootstrapped confidence intervals; Similarity indices: Added Mixed (as available in other modules); Rarefaction: Labels added for multiple-sample plot; User controllable range of color maps, new color maps; User controllable number of lines in spline deformation grids; Bubble plot: Option for 95% confidence ellipses; Rarefaction: Option to not show standard deviations; Improvement on number of decimals in graph axes.

PAST Statistical Software

We use a wide range of statistical packages at TCD but I always recommend students on my courses to use PAST (PAlaeontological Statistics). It’s an easy to use and robust software package that can be downloaded free from the Internet. There are no strings attached and it is a very simple and quick download. It is incredibly versatile and carries a wide range of statistical applications. I use it primarily for multivariate analysis and the calculation of a wide number of diversity indices. The package has been developed and is run by Oyvind Hammer who is based at the Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo, who is to be highly commended for his constant enthusiasm and helpful advice which is so freely given to users A new version (2.07) is now available incorporating many new features making it even more sophisticated while retaining its ease of use. It is supported by a series of downloadable pdf manuals. Download here.