[Taxacom] Incongruent phylogeny and geology

[John Grehan]

There was some criticism of the idea that incongruent phylogeny and
particular geological events was just an escape route to avoid
falsification (or words to that effect). It may seem that way in general,
but when one gets down to specifics there is more to the picture. A classic
example is that of contrasting NZ-SAm and Aust-SAm relationshipswhere that
may represent a geological connection between NZ and SAm via West
Antarctica and Australia connected via East Antarctica so that the patterns
evolved in association with Jurassic-Cretaceous extension in the West
Antarctic Rift System. I may have oversimplified so it would be best to
read the section on this in Heads' book who also points out that this
pattern was recognized by Brundin (1966).

John Grehan