[Taxacom] almost unbelievable (advisory)

[Richard Pyle]

P.S. I forgot to apologize for the mixed metaphor of necks and limbs, so apology herewith amended & extended.

Richard L. Pyle, PhD
Senior Curator of Ichthyology | Database Coordinator
Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, HI 96817-2704
Office: (808) 848-4115;  Fax: (808) 847-8252
eMail: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
BishopMuseum.org
Our Mission: Bishop Museum inspires our community and visitors through the exploration and celebration of the extraordinary history, culture, and environment of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Pyle <deepreef at bishopmuseum.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2020 2:19 PM
> To: 'John Grehan' <calabar.john at gmail.com>
> Cc: 'taxacom' <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
> Subject: RE: [Taxacom] almost unbelievable (advisory)
> 
> Hi John,
> 
> I've been careful to dodge this particular/recurring [pan]bio[geography]
> discussion, in large part because, well, the discussion seems so "terrestrial"
> in nature.  But I'm going to stick my neck out on a  limb here, and ask you
> two specific questions:
> 
> 1) Do you think your assertions concerning miraculous assumptions of
> chance dispersal for the origin of allopatry apply to marine organisms as
> much as they do to terrestrial organisms?
> 
> And
> 
> 2) Does 1966 (over half a century ago, mind you) really count as "modern" in
> the context of biogeography? Especially when you consider that the theory
> of Plate Tectonics didn't really start to become accepted widely until a series
> of papers published around 1965-1967.
> 
> I really don't want to start a debate (and I will not engage in one), but I'm
> waiting for a server to update some software before I can get back to my real
> job, so I figured I'd take a short break from that to understand your position
> a little better.
> 
> Thanks, and Aloha,
> Rich
> 
> Richard L. Pyle, PhD
> Senior Curator of Ichthyology | Database Coordinator Bernice Pauahi Bishop
> Museum
> 1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, HI 96817-2704
> Office: (808) 848-4115;  Fax: (808) 847-8252
> eMail: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
> BishopMuseum.org
> Our Mission: Bishop Museum inspires our community and visitors through
> the exploration and celebration of the extraordinary history, culture, and
> environment of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> On Behalf Of
> John
> > Grehan via Taxacom
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2020 2:04 PM
> > To: taxacom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
> > Subject: [Taxacom] almost unbelievable (advisory)
> >
> > Dear colleagues,
> >
> > Please do not read any further if biogeographic differences of
> > perspective or critiques are uncomfortable for you.
> >
> > As has been documented in the literature, the assumption of chance
> > dispersal for the origin of allopatry periodically generates
> > 'miracles' and 'mysteries' in the very words of the various authors.
> > Despite this leaning towards mysticism, faith in chance dispersal
> > continues to be well entrenched, and in recent decades bolstered by
> > the charade of fossil calibrated divergence estimates. An addition to
> > this mysticism comes from Carlquist (1966) in his exposition on long-
> distance dispersal (Q Rev. Biol.
> > 41) where he declares “A clear understanding of long-distance
> > dispersal is essential to an understanding of evolutionary trends on
> > oceanic islands, because immigrant patterns are different from relict
> > patterns.” All very well, until he runs into the land snail genera
> Tornatellides, Elasmias, and Partula.
> > He describes these as having “almost unbelievable distributions”.
> > Almost, but not quite it would seem. He recognizes that these
> > distributions would suggest “a kind of relictism” but he ignores this
> > because “islands they occupy are doubtless relatively recent in geological
> terms”.
> >
> > What Carlquist shows here is an inability to rethink his assumptions,
> > even when the distribution involved is “almost unbelievable”. The
> > distribution is unbelievable because it does not fit with the theory,
> > and rather than throw the theory out the data is just ignored. No
> > matter how unbelievable, the distributions still arose by
> > long-distance chance, even though “further observational and, if
> > possible, experimental evidence is needed to demonstrate the nature
> > and causes of 'incompetent' in insular species.” As with the medical
> sciences that use pejorative terms such as 'incompetent'
> > to describe medical defects (all to often in reference to female
> > anatomy), so to in biogeography are some taxa downgraded to
> > incompetent. This is the world of 'truth' (as determined by authority)
> > over 'fact'. And of course it is not as if Carlquist was without
> > alternative possibilities as had already been made abundantly clear by
> > Croizat and confirmed in great detail in recent literature. Chance
> > dispersal becomes an excuse for anything and everything according to
> > whim rather than evidence, and therefore easily slides into a world of
> > 'science' where miracles, mysteries, and the unbelievable are quite
> believable indeed. And this is supposed to be modern science?
> >
> > John Grehan
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> > Nurturing nuance while assaulting ambiguity for about 33 years, 1987-
> 2020.