Evolution__3rd_Edition

17Evolutionary Biogeography
B iogeography is the science that seeks to explain the
distribution of species,and higher taxa, on the surface
of the Earth. The chapter begins by describing the elemental
facts that are to be explained b the kinds of distribution. We
then move on to the explanatory processes. We begin with
short-term processes, such as species ecology and movement
in relation to climate, that explain distributions at the species
level. We move on to larger scale processes, such as adaptive
radiations on island archipelagos, and then to grander
biogeographic patterns and the longer term processes,
particularly plate tectonics, that produce them. We see how
to study the relation between the phylogenetic history of a
species and the geological history of the area it has occupied.
We finish by looking at another evolutionary phenomenon
resulting from plate tectonics: encounters between faunas
when previously separated areas are tectonically brought
together. The classic example is the Great American
Interchange.
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