% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
% Please edit documentation in R/distance.R
\name{mrca}
\alias{mrca}
\title{Compute the most recent common ancestor of two taxa}
\usage{
mrca(taxon_a, taxon_b, verbose = FALSE)
}
\arguments{
\item{taxon_a}{A character string giving the first taxon name.}

\item{taxon_b}{A character string giving the second taxon name.}

\item{verbose}{Logical. If \code{TRUE}, prints progress messages. Default \code{FALSE}.}
}
\value{
A character string giving the name of the MRCA, or \code{NULL} if
either taxon cannot be found or no common ancestor exists.
}
\description{
Retrieves the lineages of two taxa and returns the name of their most
recent common ancestor (MRCA) — the deepest node shared by both lineages.
}
\examples{
\donttest{
mrca("Tyrannosaurus", "Velociraptor")   # "Tyrannoraptora"
mrca("Tyrannosaurus", "Triceratops")    # "Dinosauria"
mrca("Tyrannosaurus", "Homo")           # "Amniota"
}
}
