[Taxacom] Biogeography of Australasia

[John Grehan]

Some more quotes.

" In vicariance analysis, the aim is to find the originary break between
the groups, not a point center of origin within a group. The focus is not
on the group itself or on the details of its internal geographic and
phylogenetic structure, but on its geographic and ecological relationship
with its sister."



 "The origin of a group cannot be deduced from the phylogeny or
biogeography of the group itself; it requires comparison with the group's
relatives."



 "A critique of the popular program DIVA admitted that it 'reconstructs
histories accurately when evolution has been simple; that is, where
speciation is driven mainly by vicariance' (Kodandaramaiah, 2010). But for
a simple area phylogeny: (A (A (A,B))), programs such as DIVA and DEC (in
LAGRANGE) will always find a centre of origin in A and dispersal from A to
B, even if the ancestor in fact occurred in both A and B, and evolution
proceeded entirely by vicariance (in area A)."



 "In a valuable critique, Arias et al. (2011) observed that programs such
as DIVA and DEC are based on discrete, pre-defined areas and that the
definition of the areas, carried out prior to analysis, is far from
trivial. Arias et al. instead suggested switching the focus away from
relationships among pre-defined areas, onto the actual geographic breaks
among clades. This approach is adopted here."