[Taxacom] Biogeography of Australasia

[Peter Hovenkamp]

Jphn,

Try to maintain the critical spirit that you normally so fervently apply 
to all writings biogeographical, and keep us posted.

Enjoy!

Peter Hovenkamp

On 14-3-2014 11:36, John Grehan wrote:
> I am fortunate to have the opportunity to begin reading Heads'
> "Biogeography of Australasia" book. Regardless of one's biogeographic
> perspective this book will of necessity be essential reading since it
> addresses the biogeographic realities of distribution bearing on the
> history and evolution of this part of the globe. I refer to 'realities'
> because the spatial patterns of biological structure (in this case
> principally molecular) are there for anyone to see.
>
>
>
> So far I have only read the first chapter on the spatial component of
> evolution, although the scope of this chapter alone spans more than some
> entire biogeography books. Some initial quotes are:
>
>
>
> "Biologists producing molecular phylogenies sometimes suggest that their
> work has 'revealed' chance dispersal, but in a scientific study it is the
> facts that everyone agrees on - not inferences and interpretations - that
> are revealed."
>
>
>
> "This approach [in the book] does not deny that chance dispersal exists,
> but the focus here is on repeated patterns, not on idiosyncratic
> distributions found in one or a few groups."
>
>
>
> "The question is not so much whether dispersal or vicariance has occurred,
> but whether dispersal and speciation are the result of chance movement of
> individual organisms or general, underlying causes such as geological
> change." [dispersalists have for decades failed to grasp this point when
> saying that both dispersal and vicariance occur as if that somehow
> legitimated their research program].
>
>
>
> When I get time I will post some more. Naturally I have a bias in my
> outlook, but then what biogeographer does not have a bias?
>
>
>
> John Grehan
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