[Taxacom] Woodpeckers: If any got to Madagascar, they were probably too late
OConnor, Barry
bmoc at umich.edu
Thu May 19 11:25:17 CDT 2011
I've studied the ectoparasitic mites of Madagascar mammals. Of the specialist parasite groups (I.e. excluding ticks and chiggers), only about half of the lineages that occur on mainland African hosts occur on Madagascar. The mites of the Madagascar endemic rodents are related to those of their African relatives (especially the Crictetomyinae), but some lineages are absent. Of the mites of the tenrecs, one lineage is shared with mainland Afrosoricida, but all the rest have relatives on rodents. Of the primate mites, again, one lineage is shared with African primates, but the others have rodent or perhaps tenrec relationships. Madagascar carnivores have few mites, but those are shared with tenrecs. Bats have a very typical bat-mite fauna with nothing missing or related to non-bat mites. This indicates to me that for the terrestrial mammals, there was a substantial founder effect with the original colonizing individuals bringing only a subset of their associates. Those with depauperate parasite faunas were perhaps more free to "accept" colonizing parasites from other host groups that they would encounter on Madagascar. I've studied mammal-mite communities in other insular areas, but none are as unique as Madagascar.
With much hand-waving – Barry
-So many mites, so little time!
Barry M. OConnor phone: 734-763-4354
Curator & Professor fax: 734-763-4080
Museum of Zoology e-mail: bmoc at umich.edu
University of Michigan
1109 Geddes Ave
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079
From: Robin Leech <releech at telus.net<mailto:releech at telus.net>>
Date: Thu, 19 May 2011 11:56:00 -0400
To: Richard Jensen <rjensen at saintmarys.edu<mailto:rjensen at saintmarys.edu>>, "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>>
Cc: Kenneth Kinman <kennethkinman at webtv.net<mailto:kennethkinman at webtv.net>>
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Woodpeckers: If any got to Madagascar, they were probably too late
Hi Dick,
We humans represent just one more animal species that moves around
and establishes pretty well anywhere it wants. A difference is that we
humans can document some of the flora and fauna that have become part
of the human entourage.
Hold that thought - the thought that one species opens up the possible
enlarging and establishing of distributions of other species in previously
unoccupied lands. We know and recognize some of the species that
have followed us, mainly because they have become pest species.
I don't think we have ever considered in our biogeographical theories that
until a particular non-hominid species X arrived at a new land mass (just
for
the hell of it, let's say Madagascar), a whole coterie of other species had
landed on many occasions on Madagascar, but failed to establish. Their
failure was because species X had not yet arrived and become established.
However, once species X arrived in Madagascar and established itself, then
the whole coterie of other species (which had been arriving for many years
but never became established) continues to arrive, only now because species
X is established there, the others can establish.
We always seem to study the invasions of new lands on a one-at-a-time
basis, and individual species success or failure, not a founder species
success
with subsequent successes of the coteries.
We may recognize that species X, Y and Z are at these new lands, we know
that they came from a particular source area, but because these 3 species
are
long-established in the source area, we do think to consider that there is
an
obligate relationship on the parts of Y and Z, and that they depend on X for
survival.
Robin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Jensen" <rjensen at saintmarys.edu<mailto:rjensen at saintmarys.edu>>
To: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>>
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 9:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Woodpeckers: If any got to Madagascar, they were
probably too late
On 5/19/2011 10:00 AM, Kenneth Kinman wrote:
(3) And as for macaques in New Guinea, they had the advantage of
exploiting human food supplies and crops. Nothing very natural about
that. Zebra mussels are spreading like weeds all over the place, but
that too is due to modern human activity. Not much chance they would
have dispersed at all under natural conditions, unless they evolved the
ability to hitch a ride on marine mammals.
-----------Ken
Unless one views what humans do as natural. I think this is an
interesting question - are human influences natural or unnatural? One
could argue that what we humans do is a natural consequence of our
innate abilities and qualities. If so, then the spread of "weeds" is a
natural process linked to the natural spread and activities of a
particular species of primate.
Dick J
--
Richard J. Jensen, Professor
Department of Biology
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Tel: 574-284-4674
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