Dear Jarrod, I have a data set where residual have a heavy-tailed distribution with some extreme residual values and consequently the distribution deviates from the Gaussian one. Is it possible to include an skewed-normal density for the residual in MCMCglmm package? I have done the analysis of this data with both ASReml & MCMCglmm. The results are similar and outcome from MCMCglmm analysis doesn't change with change in prior. While MCMCglmm with large numbers of iterations (400000) provides an appropriate posterior distribution for the variance components which include additive animal additive effect and common full-sib effects, the chain doesn't mix well as it is judged by the autocorrelation. The Box-Cox transformation of data suggests a square root transformation. When I analysed the square root transformed data the chain mix well, distributions are OK, but results change when different prior. Alex Dr Alex Safari Aquaculture and Genetic Improvement The WorldFish Center, Penang, MALAYSIA Telephone: 60 4 620 2175 Fax: 60 4 626 5530 (GMT +8) e-mail: a.safari@cgiar.org http://www.worldfishcenter.org <http://www.worldfishcenter.org/> Reducing poverty and hunger by improving fisheries and aquaculture [[alternative HTML version deleted]]