Deleporte on panbiogeography/ NEW !

[pierre deleporte]

A 16:03 02/07/2002 -0400, John Grehan wrote:
>Pierre Deleporte wrote
>>A last example: "shortest lines" between taxa localities (tracks). Why
>>would the shortest line as the crow flies be relevant for biogeographic
>>inferences?
>
>Its a parsimony criterion. Whether it is the most relevant geographic
>criterion is open to debate.

Agreed. So, I must solemny announce, by the present, what I deem is a
decisive propositon for improving Panbiogeography (John's version) as a method.

1) Decision:
    I decided to agree with John, that parsimony is a universal,
abiological, ageomorphological way of dealing with spatial matters.

2) Revelation:
    I reveal by the present that John, when routinely tracing tracks in
straight line "as the Crow flies", is still unfortunately embedded in the
old fashion of considering dispersal abilities of taxa for biogeographic
inferences. John prefers tracing tracks over the Himalayas "as the crow
flies" (or "as the gerbil runs"), when the real spatial straight line in a
three-dimensional Earth goes THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN ROCKS THEMSELVES.
Overlooking the three-dimensional reality of spatial data is an obviously
misleading concession to old-fashioned ways of reasoning on flat maps (a
cultural and anthropomorphic bias).

3) Solution:
   Tracks in sound biogeography should respect the real independent spatial
evidence, hence tracks must be traced in straight lines THROUGHT THE EARTH,
as a rule, and not arbitrarily on the surface of it, which is obviously NOT
parsimonious.

4) Application:
An Australia -> North America baseline obviously passes close to the center
or the Earth, which was sadly overlooked till the present time, even by the
soundest Panbiogeographers.
People shocked by the procedure have to free their spirits from biological
prejudice.

5) Caution:
   Given the importance of this methodological improvement, the present
post should be considered as officially founding this new method. To be
refered to as "Deleporte,  2002, TAXACOM miscellaneous". All rights and
intellectual property reserved. Beware imitations. Will be soon printed in
ten exemplaries with Indian ink on acid-free paper and deposited in five
International Class Museums to make sure.

6) Designation:
   Given the quasi-revolutionary nature of the improvement (second
revolution in biogeography after Croizat), I suggest a special naming.
Could be Newpanbiogeography, or Holopanbiogeography, but, with permission,
I tend to adopt the following emphatic form:
           Pan-Panbiogeography.

7) Conclusion:
    This IS a joke (merely a tentative joke: let's keep scientific throughout).

Pierre