Deleporte on panbiogeography (+ O. furcatus)

[Ken Kinman]

Oh no,
     That's what I was afraid of.  Minimal spanning tracks are another form
of strict parsimony.  The longer these tracks are, the more I will distrust
them.  Especially in the Pacific which was even wider in the past, while the
Atlantic was narrower in the past.
     I'm sure this works quite well in trans-Atlantic tracks linking South
America to Africa or linking North America to Europe.  But the Pacific is a
whole different ball game.  In that case, partial "Pacific rim"
(amphi-Pacific?)  distributions are going to be more the rule, and
trans-Pacific dispersals the rarer exceptions.  As we learn more about the
mid-Cenozoic fossil record of Antarctica, I predict that new evidence will
bear this out.
     The Pacific seems to have been a very effective barrier to long
distance Oreobolus dispersal.  It would not even surprise me if Oreobolus
furcatus was somehow carried to Tahiti and Hawaii by humans (such as the
early Polynesians), whether by accident or on purpose.
      Panbiogeography (at least as John has been explaining it) seems too
restrictive and rigid, especially when applied to the Pacific.  Guess my
eclecticism is showing once again.  But I just hate it when pendulums swing
too far one way or the other, and biogeography seems to be no exception to
controversy growing out of pendulum swinging (instead of seeking middle
ground approaches).  Oh well.
          ------- Ken Kinman



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