[Taxacom] Hypothesis: How Nothofagus rafted to New Zealand

[Curtis Clark]

On 2006-12-24 09:29, Ken Kinman wrote:
> Dispersal of some kind is indeed a testable 
> hypothesis, and I'm glad to see Fred Schueler understands what I am 
> trying to do. 

Dispersal is specifically not falsifiable, since there is no conceivable 
evidence that would rule out dispersal. Vicariance *is* falsifiable, in 
the sense that a vicariance event would be expected to affect many taxa, 
and so one can develop an area cladogram from the congruence of multiple 
organismal cladograms and areas. Any phylogeny that does not map to the 
area cladogram is not likely to have resulted from the same vicariance 
events. Dispersal is one alternative. (This is historical biogeography 
in a nutshell, btw.)

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