2 questions

[Curtis Clark]

Interesting questions.

At 11:22 AM 06/22/97 -0700, Allan Shanfield wrote:
[...]
>(2) Are there good discussion "how" and "why" there can be single family
>dominance over large tracts of land [at the expense of other families] ie.,
>Dipterocarpaceae in SE Asia (accepting there's ecolog. segregregation/niche
>differentiation among genera and spp)? Besides eucalypts, are there other
>"family" dominated examples? I imagine this is speculative and paleo must be
>invooked.

Poaceae probably fits here, also Pinaceae in some areas. This strikes
*directly* at systematics: are "families" comparable in any real biological
sense?


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Curtis Clark                       http://www.is.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
Biological Sciences Department                     Voice: (909) 869-4062
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