By Bruce S. Lieberman Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, 2000 FROM THE BACK COVER Biogeography relates the evolution of the Earth's biota to major episodes in Earth history, such as climatic changes and plate tectonic events. Further, biogeographic patterns play a prominent role in the development of the theory of evolution. Thus, biogeography has the potential to make important contributions to the field of geobiology. Poleobiogeography emphasizes how analytical techniques from phylogenetic biogeography can be applied to the study of patterns in the fossil record. In doing this, it considers the strengths and weaknesses of paleobiogeographic data, the effects of plate tectonic processes (specifically continental rifting and collision) and changes in relative sea level in terms of how they influence the evolultion and distribution of organisms. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. What Is Paleobiogeography? 1 2. The Relevance of Hierarchy Theory to Biogeography and Paleobiogeography 5 2.1. Introduction 5 2.2. The Genealogical and Economic Hierarchies 7 2.3. Hierarchies and Evolution 11 2.4. Hierarchies and Biogeography 13 2.5. Climate Change and Biogeographic Patterns 17 2.6. Geological Change and Biogeographic Patterns over Even Longer Timescales 21 2.7. Mass Extinctions and Biogeography 26 2.8. Conclusions 27 3. On the Quality of the Fossil Record and What a Paleobiogeographer Can See 29 3.1. Introduction 29 3.2. Taphonomic Studies 30 3.3. Area and Volume of Sediments 31 3.4. Phylogenetic Studies 32 3.5. Confidence Intervals on Stratigraphic Ranges 33 3.6. Studies of Sedimentation Rates and Stratigraphic Completeness 33 3.7. Conclusions 35 4. The History of Biogeography and Paleobiogeography 37 4.1. Introduction 37 4.2. Preevolutionary Biogeographic Views 38 4.3. Evolutionary Biogeography 48 4.4. The Role of Isolation as a Mechanism of Speciation and Biogeographic Differentiation 61 4.5. Conclusions 62 5. Allopatric Speciation and Vicariance 63 5.1. Introduction 63 5.2. The Relevance of Allopatric Speciation to Historical Biogeography 64 5.3. Comparing Sympatric and Allopatric Speciation 67 5.4. Why Speciation Is Important in Biogeography? 67 5.5. Why Speciation Ts Especially Important in Paleobiogeography? 68 5.6. The Relationship among Allopatric Speciation, Punctuated Equilibrium, and Dispersal 69 5.7. Conclusions 71 6. Vicariance, Dispersal, and Plate Tectonics 73 6.1. Introduction 73 6.2. Dispersion and Dispersal 74 6.3. Traditional Dispersal 75 6.4. Defining a Different Type of Dispersal: Geodispersal 76 6.5. Historical Framework on the Concept of Geodispersal 79 6.6. Integrating Vicariance and Geodispersal with Plate Tectonics 84 6.7. Relating Earth History and Evolution: General Perspective 87 6.8. Limits of Resolution in the Fossil Record, Our Ability to Identify Paleobiogeographic Patterns, and Conclusions 89 7. Defining Areas in Paleobiogeography 93 7.1. Introduction 93 7.2. Species Concepts: Ontology and Epistemology 95 7.3. The Individuality of Species 98 7.4. Translating the Debate about Species to the Debate about the Nature or Ontology of Areas 99 7.5. The Epistemology of Areas 102 7.6. Conclusions 106 8. Biogeography and the Comparative Method 109 8.1. Introduction 109 8.2. Phylogenetics and Biogeography 112 8.3. Tracing Biogeographic Distributions Group by Group: the Problem of Ancestors 114 8.4. Quantitative Approaches to Reconstruct the Historical Biogeography of Individual Clades 117 8.5. Areas as Binary Characters 123 8.6. Dispersal-Vicariance Analysis 124 8.7. Conclusions 125 9. The Search for Congruence: Analyzing Biogeographic Patterns in Several Clades 127 9.1. Introduction 127 9.2. Potential Sources of Noise in Paleobiogeographic Studies 128 9.3. Extinct Taxa and the Difference between Biogeography and Paleobiogeography 131 9.4. Additional Basic Assumptions of any Biogeographic Study 134 9.5. Analytical Approaches to Historical Biogeography 134 9.6. Phenetic Approaches to Biogeographic Analysis 136 9.7. Probabilistic Approaches to Biogeographic Analysis 138 9.8. Analytical Approaches to Biogeography within a Phylogenetic Framework 138 9.9. Arguments about Using Parsimony Algorithms in Biogeography 155 9.10. Other Criticisms of Brooks Parsimony Analysis that Are No Longer Valid 157 9.11. Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity 159 9.12. Case Studies Assessing the Efficacy of Components Analysis vs Brooks Parsimony Analysis that Used the Extant Biota 159 9.13. Paleobiogeographic Studies Using Phylogenetic Approaches and the Modified Version of Brooks Parsimony Analysis 160 9.14. Further Issues in Cladistic Biogeography that Need to be Explored 173 9.15. Conclusions 175 10. Biogeography and the Biodiversity Crisis 177 10.1. Introduction 177 10.2. Invasive Species and the Biodiversity Crisis: Geodispersal and Merging Areas of Endemism 178 10.3. Analogues from the Past: the Late Devonian Mass Extinction 179 10.4. Habitat Destruction and the Biodiversity Crisis: Destroying Areas of Endemism 180 10.5. Historical Perspective on Biogeography's Role in Understanding the Biodiversity Crisis 180 10.6. Biogeography: More Lessons from the Recent Past 181 10.7. Conclusions 182 11. Conclusions 185 References 191 Index 205 PREFACE Among the topics that I will consider in this book are: (1) why do different regions have markedly different floras and faunas (both fossil and living); (2) why, when we study the fossil record do we find that at different times in the history of life there seems to be a greater or lesser number of regions with largely unique floras and faunas; (3) do closely related groups of organisms tend to occupy the same regions; and (4) what are the various ways to analyze the differences between different floras and faunas? These are actually a subset of the major questions that have been posed throughout the years by biogeographers. Some additional questions have been nicely encapsulated by Brown and Lomolino (1998, pp. 3-4), and it is worthwhile to summarize some of them here. Specifically, (5) why is a species or higher taxon confined to its present range; (6) what enables a species to live where it does and prevents it from colonizing other areas; (7) what are the roles of climate, barriers, and competition in controlling the distribution of species; (8) where do two closely related species occur in relation to one another; (9) why do large isolated regions possess very distinct animals and plants; (10) why are there more species in the tropics than near the poles; and (11) how are islands colonized? This book is organized into a set of chapters introducing themes that will enable the reader to visualize the field of paleobiogeography from several different angles. Chapter 2 focuses specifically on the relationship between hierarchy theory and biogeography. Here I discuss why there is a distinction between what has been referred to as phylogenetic or historical biogeography (sensu Brooks and McLennan, 1991), essentially the subdiscipline of biogeography that attempts to elucidate evolutionary patterns and processes and their relationship to the Earth's geography, and ecological biogeography (sensu Brown and Lomolino, 1998), essentially the subdiscipline of biogeography that attempts to elucidate ecological patterns and processes and their relationship to the Earth's geography. Chapter 3 is a discussion of which types of biogeographic patterns are most amenable to study in the fossil record; i.e. those patterns that are of the greatest relevance to paleobiogeographers, and also includes a discussion of the quality and limits of resolution of the fossil record. Chapter 4 considers the historical development of the field. Many of the current major debates in the field of biogeography have a long intellectual tradition, and our understanding of the issues will increase when we consider them from an historical perspective. Chapters 5 and 6 consider revolutions in the fields of geology and biology, and their respective impact on biogeography and paleobiogeography. In Chapter 7, I discuss how biogeographic areas are defined. Chapters 8 and 9 deal with the analysis of paleobiogeographic data, including case studies to clarify the techniques. Finally, in Chapter l0, I conclude with a commentary on the significance of biogeography and paleobiogeography for our understanding of the current biodiversity crisis and the associated mass extinction that afflicts the flora and fauna of this planet. In each of these thematic chapters, the role of paleobiogeography as a bridge between the diverse fields of biology and geology is emphasized. WHERE TO ORDER: Andrea Macaluso, Editor Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers New York, NY 10013 www.wkap.com Telephone: (212) 620-8007 Fax: (212) 463-0742 Email: amacaluso@wkap.com Price: $80 USD(Hardbound), ISBN 0-306-46277-X Posted Date: 5/29/2003
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