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For those interested in the history of biogeography, particularly as it
pertains to the establishment of
current practices I would suggest reading
Heads, 2014. Biogeography by revelation:
investigating a world
shaped by miracles. Australian Systematic Botany, 2014, 27, 282-304.
This article provides an outline of
how both the development and constitution of modern biogeography is
widely based on the development
of a mythology as exemplified by De Queiroz's recent book. In this
article Heads outlines and falsifies seven
principle myths that are widely accepted as real by dispersalist
biogeographers. Hopefully there are at least
some students reading this posting who are willing to take a critical
look for themselves rather than just
parrot what they have heard:
1. The myth that panbiogeography ignores critical evidence
2. The myth that vicariance theory was dominant in the 1970s-1990s
3. The myth that fossils and fossil-calibrated molecular clocks provide
maximum possible ages of clades
4. The myth that vicariance theory rejects the fossil record and clock
dates
5. The myth that DNA sequences "reveal" long-distance dispersal
6. The myth that distribution is chaotic
7. The myth that chance dispersal can generate repeated patterns
Heads' article also provides a commentary on the islands of Sao Tome and
Principe in relation to their
tectonic context (and implications for their amphibians), and the islands
of Madagascar, Seychelles, and
New Zealand (including the Chatham Islands and Hikurangi Plateau),
New Caledonia, and Hawaiian Islands,
Norfolk Island, Falkland Islands, and "Fernando de Noronha".
John Grehan
19 April, 2015