[Taxacom] FW: [Biogeography Portal] Hypothesis: How Nothofagus rafted to New Zealand

[John Grehan]

Forwarded message below. (Ken, if you want to respond include biogeography at bohm.snv.jussieu.fr and I will approve posting)

John Grehan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mauro J. Cavalcanti [mailto:maurobio at gmail.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2006 6:19 AM
> To: biogeography at bohm.snv.jussieu.fr
> Subject: Re: [Biogeography Portal] Hypothesis: How Nothofagus rafted to
> New Zealand
> Importance: High
> 
> Dear Ken,
> 
> >      The same rafting mechanism could have taken Nothofagus gunnii to
> New
> > Zealand to found the truncata-fusca-solandri group (all four form a
> clade
> in
> > subgenus Fuscospora).  Or maybe a bird could have done this as well,
> since
> > these species apparently have no Cyttaria fungi associated with them
> > (although one could perhaps even imagine a bird eating both Nothofagus
> > cunninghamii seeds and Cyttaria spores before taking off for--or being
> blown
> > to--New Zealand).  Next I need to look into mosses and insects which may
> be
> > (like Cyttaria) unique to Nothofagus.
> 
> And maybe an alien spaceship in a specimen-collecting mission in this
> remote
> corner of the galaxy dropped a few Nothofagus in New Zealand by
> accident...
> Well, jokes apart, this kind of "maybe" imaginative reasoning only leads
> to
> all sorts of story-telling that, by being able to explain everything, do
> not
> explain anything after all.
> 
> I cannot see why a single vicariant event would not be a more parsimonious
> (i.e., simple) explanation for the shared distribution patterns of trees,
> fungi, mosses, insects, birds, and many other taxa that a dispersal
> scenario
> for Nothofagus-Cyttaria could not explain anyway (even if such scenario
> could itself be proved true).
> 
> Regards,
> 
> --
> Dr. Mauro J. Cavalcanti
> Departamento de Zoologia
> Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
> Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524, CEP 20559-900
> Rio de Janeiro, RJ, BRASIL
> E-mail: maurobio at gmail.com
> Web: http://maurobio.infobio.net
> "Life is complex. It consists of real and imaginary parts."
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ken Kinman" <kinman at hotmail.com>
> To: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
> Cc: <biogeography at bohm.snv.jussieu.fr>
> Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2006 2:03 AM
> Subject: [Biogeography Portal] Hypothesis: How Nothofagus rafted to New
> Zealand
> 
> 
> > BIOGEOGRAPHY PORTAL
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
> ----
> 
> 
> > Dear All,
> >      Now back to dispersal (sorry for the rant against panbiogeographers
> who
> > overdo the vicariance thing, but Grehan really provoked me this time and
> was
> > asking for it in my opinion; I'm tired of being called a Darwinian
> > dispersalist when I recognize lots of vicariance too).   Anyway, I got
> to
> > thinking about the additional evidence that Nothofagus menziesii of New
> > Zealand sharing the same species of fungi (Cyttaria gunni) with
> Nothofagus
> > cunninghamii of Tasmania and adjacent Australia.  Not surprising since
> they
> > are very closely related members of subgenus Lophozonia.
> >
> >      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.
> >
> >     Nothofagus can float for very long distances, even ALL the way from
> > Chile to Tasmania (see Barber, 1959, in the journal Nature; "Transport
> of
> > Driftwood from South America to Tasmania").  Therefore, floating the
> shorter
> > distance from Tasmania to New Zealand would have been comparatively
> easy,
> > especially in some of the strongest ocean currents in the world.
> >
> >      Some of the fruits would have been held above the ocean surface, so
> the
> > salt water couldn't ruin them, and fruits that might not have been fully
> > ripe yet would have provided further protection to the seeds inside.  In
> New
> > Zealand, the new population evolved into a new species (N. menziesii)
> due
> to
> > the founder effect.  The Cyttaria gunnii fungi apparently didn't
> speciate
> > (or maybe it actually has and it just hasn't been shown yet by molecular
> > testing).  But can't rule out Cyttaria getting to New Zealand at a later
> > time independently.
> >
> >      The same rafting mechanism could have taken Nothofagus gunnii to
> New
> > Zealand to found the truncata-fusca-solandri group (all four form a
> clade
> in
> > subgenus Fuscospora).  Or maybe a bird could have done this as well,
> since
> > these species apparently have no Cyttaria fungi associated with them
> > (although one could perhaps even imagine a bird eating both Nothofagus
> > cunninghamii seeds and Cyttaria spores before taking off for--or being
> blown
> > to--New Zealand).  Next I need to look into mosses and insects which may
> be
> > (like Cyttaria) unique to Nothofagus.  No telling what all a floating
> tree
> > could have carried over with it, and I need all the evidence I can in
> order
> > to get Grehan off my back.  But enough for one day.  I'm tired.
> >       ----Cheers,
> >             Ken Kinman
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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> >
> >

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