Hello RUser! I try to use ace for an ancestral state reconstruction but got back an error message. ace(FacVar,Tree, type="discrete") Warning messages: 1: In nlm(function(p) dev(p), p = rep(ip, length.out = np), hessian = TRUE) : NA/Inf durch gr??te positive Zahl ersetzt (NA/Inf replaced by positive number) 2: In nlm(function(p) dev(p), p = rep(ip, length.out = np), hessian = TRUE) : NA/Inf durch gr??te positive Zahl ersetzt 3: In nlm(function(p) dev(p), p = rep(ip, length.out = np), hessian = TRUE) : NA/Inf durch gr??te positive Zahl ersetzt 4: In nlm(function(p) dev(p), p = rep(ip, length.out = np), hessian = TRUE) : NA/Inf durch gr??te positive Zahl ersetzt 5: In nlm(function(p) dev(p), p = rep(ip, length.out = np), hessian = TRUE) : NA/Inf durch gr??te positive Zahl ersetzt 6: In nlm(function(p) dev(p), p = rep(ip, length.out = np), hessian = TRUE) : NA/Inf durch gr??te positive Zahl ersetzt 7: In nlm(function(p) dev(p), p = rep(ip, length.out = np), hessian = TRUE) : NA/Inf durch gr??te positive Zahl ersetzt 8: In nlm(function(p) dev(p), p = rep(ip, length.out = np), hessian = TRUE) : NA/Inf durch gr??te positive Zahl ersetzt 9: In ace(SummaCharNAavoidOpt7$Spik_orient_Anth_Diff, RestioTreeOoutgrBLrooted, : The likelihood gradient seems flat in at least one dimension (gradient null): cannot compute the standard-errors of the transition rates. I presume it is due to my missing values? na.pattern(dataframe) #dataframe contains 7 discrete characters. I get an error message with all of them pattern 0000000 0000001 0000100 0010000 0100000 1000000 1001000 1100100 1111111 274 5 1 3 7 2 1 1 4 Can I fix this somehow? Thanks in advance Birgit ----- The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. (Marcus Aurelius) -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/ace-error-because-of-missings--tp18385322p18385322.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.