Molecular Panbiogeography of the Tropics

by Heads, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780520271968
• ISBN10: 0520271963
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-01-04
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Molecular studies reveal highly ordered geographic patterns in plant and animal distributions. The tropics illustrate these patterns of community immobilism leading allopatric differentiation, as well as other patterns of mobilism, range expansion, and overlap of taxa. Integrating Earth history and biogeography, Molecular Panbiogeography of the Tropicsis an alternative view of distributional history in which groups are older than suggested by fossils and fossil-calibrated molecular clocks. The author discusses possible causes for the endemism of high-level taxa in tropical America and Madagascar, and overlapping clades in South America, Africa, and Asia. The book concludes with a critique of adaptation by selection, founded on biogeography and recent work in genetics.

Author Biography

Michael Heads is a former Senior Lecturer in Ecology at the University of the South Pacific. He is now an independent Scholar living in New Zealand.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Evolution in Space	p. 1
Evolution in Time	p. 59
Evolution and Biogeography of Primates: A New Model Based on Molecular Phylogenetics, Vicariance, and Plate Tectonics	p. 101
Biogeography of New World Monkeys	p. 145
Primates in Africa and Asia	p. 203
Biogeography of the Central Pacific: Endemism, Vicariance, and Plate Tectonics	p. 267
Biogeography of the Hawaiian Islands: The Global Context	p. 313
Distribution within the Hawaiian Islands	p. 355
Biogeography of Pantropical and Global Groups	p. 407
Evolution in Space, Time, and Form: Beyond Centers of Origin, Dispersal, and Adaptation	p. 435
Glossary of Geological Terms	p. 455
Bibliography	p. 459
Index	p. 535
About the Author	p. 563
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