[Taxacom] Hypothesis: How Nothofagus rafted to New Zealand

[John Grehan]

 From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Curtis Clark
Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2006 10:58 AM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Hypothesis: How Nothofagus rafted to New Zealand

On 2006-12-23 20:03, Ken Kinman wrote:
>     My hypothesis is that one (or more) Nothofagus cunninghamii trees 
> rafted to New Zealand carrying on their branchs both their own fruit 
> and their unique fungus Cyttaria gunni.  The tree or trees could have 
> been dislodged due to land slides, massive floods, or even a 
> tsunami---pick your favorite disaster.

This is not a hypothesis, since it's not testable. It's evolutionary
"tall tales" such as this that give the panbiogeographers ammunition.

-- 
Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
Web Coordinator, Cal Poly Pomona                 +1 909 979 6371
Professor, Biological Sciences                   +1 909 869 4062

Agreed - although I don't think panbiogeographers need the ammunition
since panbiogeography is based on spatial analysis of biological and
geomorphological relationships. The tall tales just demonstrate that
much [but not everything, since there are some good molecular studies
out there and there are some good cladistic studies as well] of what is
not panbiogeography may not be much of anything at all, even when
dressed up in dispersal-vicariance analysis or molecular clocks.

John Grehan