BTW there are a lot of examples of geographically dispersed animals that continental drift can't be used to explain ... so Darwin wasn't wrong to look for other ways of dispersing creatures across oceans:
.... rafting or other means of "oceanic dispersal" have been suggested to solve a number of other biogeographical conundrums that challenge neo-Darwinism, including:
Lizards reaching South America78
Large caviomorph rodents reaching South America79
Bees arriving in Madagascar80
Lemurs arriving in Madagascar81 T
he arrival of other mammals in Madagascar, including the Tenrecidae (hedgehoglike insectivorous mammals), aardvarks, the hippopotamus, and the Viverridae (cat-sized carnivorous mammals)82
Dispersal of salamanders across the western end of the Mediterranean83
Dispersal of certain lizards across the western end of the Mediterranean84
The origin of certain lizards in Cuba85
The appearance of elephant fossils on "many islands," which are said to have arrived by swimming86
Dispersal of freshwater frogs across oceanic island chains87
Certain frogs reaching Madagascar88
The colonization of Anguilla by green iguanas89
Appearance of certain South American insects90
Dispersals of chameleons across the Indian Ocean91
Origin of certain insects in Caribbean islands92
The origin of mantellid frogs found on the island of Mayotte in the Comoros archipelago, despite the fact that "[a]mphibians are thought to be unable to disperse over ocean barriers because they do not tolerate the osmotic stress of salt water"93
The spread of flightless insects to the Chatham Islands94
The origin of indigenous gekkos in South America95
Origin of crocodile distributions96
The appearance of sloths in South America97
The origin of a group of Australian rodents98
The appearance of land mammals of the Mediterranean islands (also suggesting that "Hippos, elephants, and giant deer reached the islands by swimming")99
The origin of various land reptiles in Western Samoa100
The presence of Crotalus rattlesnakes in Baja California101
Indeed, a review in 2005 by Alan de Queiroz wrote that "[s]triking examples of oceanic dispersal" include: (a) Scaevola (Angiospermae: Goodeniaceae) three times from Australia to Hawaii; (b) Lepidium mustards (Angiospermae: Brassicaceae) from North America and Africa to Australia; (c) Myosotis forget-me-nots (Angiospermae: Boraginaceae) from Eurasia to New Zealand and from New Zealand to South America; (d) Tarentola geckos from Africa to Cuba; (e) Maschalocephalus (Angiospermae: Rapateaceae) from South America to Africa; (f) monkeys (Platyrrhini) from Africa to South America; (g) melastomes (Angiospermae: Melastomataceae) from South America to Africa; (h) cotton (Angiospermae: Malvaceae: Gossypium) from Africa to South America; (i) chameleons three times from Madagascar to Africa; (j) several frog genera to and from Madagascar; (k) Acridocarpus (Angiospermae: Malpighiaceae) from Madagascar to New Caledonia; (l) Baobab trees (Angiospermae: Bombacaceae: Adansonia) between Africa and Australia; (m) 200 plant species between Tasmania and New Zealand; (n) many plant taxa between Australia and New Zealand; and (o) Nemuaron (Angiospermae: Atherospermataceae) from Australia (or Antarctica) to New Caledonia.102
Figure 1 of De Queiroz's paper contains a revealing map of the world covered in lines criss-crossing back and forth across oceans showing how many species must have traversed oceans to explain their distributions in locations unexpected by traditional biogeography:
(Reprinted from Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Vol.20(2), Alan de Queiroz, "The resurrection of oceanic dispersal in historical biogeography," pages 68-73, (February 2005) with permission from Elsevier. Slightly resized to fit blog formatting.)
- See more at: evolutionnews.org |
