[Taxacom] Hedges/Kumar (eds) The Timetree of Life

[Sergio Vargas]

  Hi there,

I have to confess that these discussions really help me sorting my pdf 
database!

ok, now... I agree with your reading about the means of dispersal, 
Croizat pretty much found no correlation between means of dispersal and 
distribution and this was major. I partially disagree, however, with 
your opinion that the primary problem is to find whether the history of 
earth and of life are correlated. The "earth and life evolve together" 
phrase is kind of a primary axiom of panbiogeography, so from the very 
beginning one assumes there is a correlation between the evolution of 
living forms and the geological landscape where they evolve. But I guess 
this a minor discrepancy...

> Well its worse than bad. The content is derived from publications that
> would not be out of your reach. A track is defined as a minimal spanning
> tree, where localities are linked by the shortest geographic distance IN
> THE ABSENCE OF OTHER INFORMATION. As I pointed out in an earlier
> posting, one can link individual taxa together first, and then link
> related taxa in the order of their relationship (or just their minimal
> distance).
I meant, I have not read the book... I have read the literature, though. 
I know what a track is and how you can draw one, and my point was 
precisely that since you can link the localities using a nearest 
neighbor criterion you don't need a phylogeny for the group you are 
working with.
> As I mentioned in an earlier posting, a beginner paper posted on my
> website that covers various approaches although I do not go into
> quantitative algorithms as its not my forte.
> http://www.sciencebuff.org/research/current-research-activities/john-gre
> han/evolutionary-biography/panbiogeographic-publications/grehan-publicat
> ions/
>
well, I have been trying for years now to get panbiogeography's 
algorithms. Aside from Page (1987) and Henderson (1989) I've had 
troubles finding any. That's why I used Track compatibility analysis as 
proposed by Craw. In doing this I've found that the method is not 
spatial at all, and its results are maximum vicariance. I've seen papers 
using PAE to find generalized tracks in an unexplained way: I still 
don't know how to turn a steiner tree into a minimun spanning tree; I 
think this is not possible at all, but there are published papers using 
PAE to derive generalized tracks... You also have, of course, the 
classic "by eye"...

 >Please cite the publications illustrating the frequent use of clique

Publications using track compatibility analysis...

Title Geographical diversification of tribes epilobieae, goncylocarpeae, 
and onagreae(onagraceae) in North America, based on parsimony analysis 
of endemicity and track compatibility analysis
Author(s) Katinas, L; Crisci, JV; Wagner, WL; Hoch, PC
Source ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 91 (1):159-185 2004

Title Panbiogeography, biotic components and transition zones
Author(s) Morrone, Juan J.
Source Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 48 (2):149-162 2004

Title Historical biogeography of the Asteraceae from Tandilia and 
Ventania mountain ranges (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Author(s) Crisci-V., Jorge; Freire-E., Susana; Sancho, Gisela; Katinas, 
Liliana
Source Caldasia 23 (1):21-41 2001

Title DISTRIBUTIONAL PATTERNS OF FRESH-WATER DECAPODA (CRUSTACEA, 
MALACOSTRACA) IN SOUTHERN SOUTH-AMERICA - A PANBIOGEOGRAPHIC APPROACH
Author(s) MORRONE, JJ; LOPRETTO, EC
Source JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY 21 (1):97-109 1994

Title DISTRIBUTIONAL PATTERNS OF SPECIES OF RHYTIRRHININI (COLEOPTERA, 
CURCULIONIDAE) AND THE HISTORICAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE ANDEAN PROVINCES
Author(s) MORRONE, JJ
Source GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY LETTERS 4 (6):188-194 1994

Title Vicariance in historical biogeography: Analytical problems in 
reconstructing area cladograms
Author(s) Minaka, Nobuhiro
Source Acta Phytotaxonomica et Geobotanica 44 (2):151-184 1993

looking at the literature, it seems that PAE became more popular as a 
panbiogeographic technique at some point. Again, how you turn the 
results of PAE into a generalized tracks remains (at least to me) 
unexplained.

> No one's forcing you to read anything, but if one wants to critique
> panbiogeography (and there is certainly nothing wrong with that) it
> would be nice to see the critiques refer to specific applications that
> substantiate what may be perceived as problems.
The original email I send to Jason was not a critique to 
panbiogeography. I criticized the use of track compatibility for 
determining generalized tracks, the method is wrong even from a 
panbiogeographic perspective, and I gave specific applications and 
reasons why the method is wrong. I wrote "There is another problem with 
panbiogeography...", ok, sorry, please read: there is a problem with the 
application of track compatibility analysis for discovering generalized 
tracks...

I also mentioned that because you can use a nearest neighbor criterion 
to draw the tracks panbiogeography was used as an escape when you want 
to do historical biogeography and don't have cladograms to do BPA for 
instance. I still think most people do this, at least in Latin America 
where you have many species and not too many cladograms or money to work 
on them...

sergio