[Taxacom] Geophylogeny

[Bob Mesibov]

On Richard Zander's comment:

Of course evolutionary biologists are aware of geography, but they forget 
about it as soon as they start constructing a hypothetical phylogeny. It's 
only *after* the tree is built that time (dates, durations) and space 
(locations of terminal taxa, and of fossils in Kidd and Price's 
reconstruction) are trial-fitted to the space-free hypothesis.

On Lena Struwe's comment:

Simply *displaying* a tree in a spatial framework, as in GIS, is not the 
same as *using* spatial information to test or improve a phylogeny.

Incidentally, if anyone wonders whether the beliefs listed in my first 
"geophylogeny" post are as fanatically held as I imply, read this quote from 
a paper published last year in a phylogenetics journal:

"Furthermore, geographic distribution should never be used as a criterion 
for delineating genera in any group of organisms; biogeographic 
distributions should be studied at the population–species level, or below, 
closest to where the actual pattern-shaping events occur." "Never" was 
italicised in the original.

I plotted the distribution data given in the paper for the many exemplars 
analysed for morphological and molecular characters, and guess what? The two 
genera established by the authors on inherent-character evidence were 
perfectly parapatric. Did the authors point this out in their paper? Nope. 
If they don't think location has anything to do with evolution above the 
population or species level, why should they?
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Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
and School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
(03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195

Australian Millipedes Checklist
http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/zoology/millipedes/index.html
Tasmanian Multipedes
http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/zoology/multipedes/mulintro.html
Spatial data basics for Tasmania
http://www.utas.edu.au/spatial/locations/index.html
Biodiversity salvage blog
http://biodiversitysalvage.blogspot.com/
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