- Email: [email protected]
Biogeography emerging: provocative and integrative perspectives in historical biogeography
Update 2 Niven, J.E. (2007) Brains, islands and evolution: breaking all the rules. Trends Ecol. Evol. 22, 57–59 3 Brown, P. et al. (2004) A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia. Nature 431, 1055–1061 4 Foster, J.B. (1964) Evolution of mammals on islands. Nature 202, 234– 235 5 Damuth, J. (1993) Cope’s rule, the island rule and the scaling of mammalian population density. Nature 365, 748–750 6 Bromham, L. and Cardillo, M. (2007) Primates follow the island rule: implications for interpreting Homo floresiensis. Biol. Lett. 3, 398–400 7 Aiello, L.C. et al. (2001) In defense of the expensive tissue hypothesis. In Evolutionary Anatomy of the Primate Cerebral Cortex (Falk, D. and Gibson, K.R., eds), pp. 57–78, Cambridge University Press 8 Leigh, E.G. et al. (2007) The biogeography of large islands, or how does ´ col. the size of the ecological theatre affect the evolutionary play? Rev. E (Terre Vie) 62, 105–168
TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution Vol.23 No.1 9 Fukami, T. et al. (2007) Immigration history controls diversification in experimental adaptive radiation. Nature 446, 436–439 10 Niven, J.E. et al. (2007) Fly photoreceptors demonstrate energyinformation trade-offs in neural coding. PLoS Biol. 5, 828–840 11 Tocheri, M.W. et al. (2007) The primitive wrist of Homo floresiensis and its implications for hominin evolution. Science 317, 1743–1745 12 Authur, W. (2004) Biased Embryos and Evolution. Cambridge University Press 13 Eberhard, W.G. (2001) Multiple origins of a major novelty: moveable abdominal lobes in male sepsid flies (Diptera: epsidae), and the question of developmental constraints. Evol. Dev. 3, 206–222 14 Spoor, F. et al. (2007) Implications of new early Homo fossils from Ileret, east of Lake Turkana, Kenya. Nature 448, 688–691 0169-5347/$ – see front matter. Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2007.10.004
Book Review
Biogeography emerging: provocative and integrative perspectives in historical biogeography Biogeography in a Changing World by Malte C. Ebach and Raymond S. Tangney, CRC Press, 2007. US$89.95, hbk (212 pages) ISBN 978 0 8493 8038 9
Mark V. Lomolino Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
Well, perhaps you can judge a book by its cover, at least to some extent. Artist Neal Adams was commissioned by the editors of this collected volume of essays to illustrate a still far from mainstream, yet captivating, theory on the dynamics of the earth – the expanding earth theory – championed by a select group of individuals (most notably S. Warren Carey) from the 1950s to 1980s. The theory remains an unaccepted, but perhaps unappreciated, explanation for the dynamics of the continents and their respective biotas, which drifted apart as a small, primordial, continental earth expanded and ocean basins developed to fill in the gaps. The cover illustration, thus, serves as a captivating declaration that this collection of essays will be, if nothing else, provocative and will challenge traditional views of how regional biotas develop over time. The book is the product of a symposium entitled ‘What is Biogeography?’, which took place during the Fifth Biennial Meeting of the Systematics Association in 2005. The stated goal of the symposium was to present ‘a broad-based perspective on the nature of biogeography, offering historical perspectives based on current understanding and methodological advances, as well as what the future might hold’. One underlying theme for several essays in this volume is that geographic variation among biotas is not only shaped by geological dynamics but also that these biogeographical patterns can inform and, at times, challenge our current understanding in geology. Thus, although the volume’s title – Biogeography in a Changing World – might suggest Corresponding author: Lomolino, M.V. ([email protected]).
mistakenly to some a focus on climate change and recent, anthropogenic modifications in landscapes and their dependent biotas, it seems entirely appropriate within the context of historical development of the earth and its biotas. In their introduction to this volume, the editors discuss various definitions of biogeography and then briefly summarize the history of the field, focusing on different approaches for reconstructing the historical development of regional biotas. As almost every student of historical biogeography realizes quickly, the history of this field is fraught with contentious debates among alternate schools, which often degrade into contemptuous clashes among their champions. Although controversy is of course part and parcel of most, if not all, scientific crisis and revolutions [1], a rapprochement among debating schools and a reintegration of long divergent lines of study will be best served if these debates are tempered and waged on scientific and not personal grounds. The first chapter, by David M. Williams, chronicles one of these legendary clashes – the debates between Ernst Haeckel and Louis Agassiz and their students over the utility of the threefold parallelism (the synthesis of paleontology, systematics and ontogeny) and the importance of geographic variation in reconstructing genealogies. Lynne Parenti’s chapter is the first in this volume to review and critique the current state of the field and to discuss potential synthesis among its various camps, in particular, cladistic and phylogenetic biogeography. Here, she presents a cogent and persuasive argument for achieving a new synthesis, which Donn Rosen called for nearly three decades ago: ’a revolution in the earth sciences – an integrated natural history of the geological and biological systems’. John Grehan’s chapter is a more specialized one, 9
Update
TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution Vol.23 No.1
using distribution patterns of Microseris (Angiosperms: Asteraceae) to illustrate how analyses of biogeographical distributions can provide insights into the relationships among organisms. This chapter includes a critique and rather negative assessment of Darwinian biogeographers who, according to Grehan, ‘look to historical theories of ecology, systematics, molecular clocks, and geology – anything but distributions themselves – as the empirical data of biogeography’. Again using case studies, but in a broader perspective in their chapter, Berhard Hausdorf and Christian Hennig develop an analytical approach to assess the importance of vicariance in shaping biotas, in this case using land snail distributions in north-west Europe and the Mediterranean to demonstrate their method and its abilities to detect patterns and alternative, underlying processes. Tod Stuessy’s chapter on the evolution of specific and genetic diversity in insular floras is perhaps the best example in this volume of the potential for integration of ecological and historical traditions in biogeography. The model he presents is, in many ways, reminiscent of E. O. Wilson’s taxon cycle, which described the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of insular faunas. In her chapter on event-based biogeography, Isabel Sanmartin presents an interesting review and a persuasive case for integrating alternative approaches in historical biogeography. She asserts that the best means of achieving such an integration is to base historical reconstructions on the fundamental events or processes – vicariance, duplication (speciation), extinction and dispersal. Brett Riddle and David Hafner present another interesting and constructive review of alternative methods in historical biogeography, focusing on phylogeography and its potential integration with area-based historical approaches. Their positive perspective is both refreshing and compelling, emphasizing the strengths and complementary aspects of what all-to-often are viewed as competing and incompatible approaches for reconstructing the development of biotas. The final chapter in this volume is a surprising but, in retrospect, perhaps fitting capstone because it reminds us
that, like any period of crisis and revolution in the sciences, historical biogeography is still fraught with contentious debates among its practitioners. The participants in these clashes not only challenge each other but, of much greater import, they simultaneously challenge some of the fundamental premises and long-standing theories of those disciplines. In this chapter, Dennis McCarthy reviews what he sees as inabilities of the accepted paradigm of plate tectonics theory and vicariance and dispersalist hypotheses to explain transoceanic disjunctions. I would have preferred, given the mixed tenor and diversity of views presented in various chapters of this volume, that it included a general conclusion along with a prospective on the frontiers of the field. Others more familiar with various research programs in historical biogeography than I am might have identified other promising lines of research and conceptual advances that could have been included in this volume. Yet, as it stands, this book does serve as a provocative summary of some of the more interesting challenges and potential means of advancing historical biogeography. In addition to desiring a bit more input from the editors in terms of a general conclusion and a more affordable, paperback version of this volume, I would also have favored a larger format and a bit more attention to the illustrations. Most of these are of high quality but, when presented in small format and just on a portion of a page, most of the detail of some of the maps is lost or at least difficult to appreciate. These quibbles aside, the volume includes an interesting collection of essays that characterize the current state of historical biogeography and some of its most important or controversial ideas and promising directions for future research. References 1 Kuhn, T.S. (1994) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press 0169-5347/$ – see front matter ß 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2007.08.014 Available online 5 November 2007
Book Review
Valuing what most will never see The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology and Conservation of the Deep Sea by Tony Koslow, University of Chicago Pres, 2007. £22.50/US$35.00 hbk (312 pages) ISBN 0 226 45124 9
Robert Vrijenhoek Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039, USA
Historically, human populations have flourished along narrow margins of land that border vast ocean basins. The oceans cover nearly 70% of our planet and have sustained us with food and entertainment, facilitated our transportation, and, unfortunately, provided a convenient garbage dump that seemed boundless. Now we are painfully aware 10
of the oceans’ limits. Fisheries are suffering worldwide, many of our favorite beaches are polluted, ice shelves are melting, and scientific concepts like global warming and ocean acidification have captivated the popular media. Most people only experience a few meters of the ocean’s surface and consider its deep basins as mysterious and dangerous places, full of monstrous creatures sheltered eternally from humanity by darkness, cold and intense pressures. The Silent Deep is a call-to-arms, inspiring us
TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution Vol.23 No.1 9 Fukami, T. et al. (2007) Immigration history controls diversification in experimental adaptive radiation. Nature 446, 436–439 10 Niven, J.E. et al. (2007) Fly photoreceptors demonstrate energyinformation trade-offs in neural coding. PLoS Biol. 5, 828–840 11 Tocheri, M.W. et al. (2007) The primitive wrist of Homo floresiensis and its implications for hominin evolution. Science 317, 1743–1745 12 Authur, W. (2004) Biased Embryos and Evolution. Cambridge University Press 13 Eberhard, W.G. (2001) Multiple origins of a major novelty: moveable abdominal lobes in male sepsid flies (Diptera: epsidae), and the question of developmental constraints. Evol. Dev. 3, 206–222 14 Spoor, F. et al. (2007) Implications of new early Homo fossils from Ileret, east of Lake Turkana, Kenya. Nature 448, 688–691 0169-5347/$ – see front matter. Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2007.10.004
Book Review
Biogeography emerging: provocative and integrative perspectives in historical biogeography Biogeography in a Changing World by Malte C. Ebach and Raymond S. Tangney, CRC Press, 2007. US$89.95, hbk (212 pages) ISBN 978 0 8493 8038 9
Mark V. Lomolino Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
Well, perhaps you can judge a book by its cover, at least to some extent. Artist Neal Adams was commissioned by the editors of this collected volume of essays to illustrate a still far from mainstream, yet captivating, theory on the dynamics of the earth – the expanding earth theory – championed by a select group of individuals (most notably S. Warren Carey) from the 1950s to 1980s. The theory remains an unaccepted, but perhaps unappreciated, explanation for the dynamics of the continents and their respective biotas, which drifted apart as a small, primordial, continental earth expanded and ocean basins developed to fill in the gaps. The cover illustration, thus, serves as a captivating declaration that this collection of essays will be, if nothing else, provocative and will challenge traditional views of how regional biotas develop over time. The book is the product of a symposium entitled ‘What is Biogeography?’, which took place during the Fifth Biennial Meeting of the Systematics Association in 2005. The stated goal of the symposium was to present ‘a broad-based perspective on the nature of biogeography, offering historical perspectives based on current understanding and methodological advances, as well as what the future might hold’. One underlying theme for several essays in this volume is that geographic variation among biotas is not only shaped by geological dynamics but also that these biogeographical patterns can inform and, at times, challenge our current understanding in geology. Thus, although the volume’s title – Biogeography in a Changing World – might suggest Corresponding author: Lomolino, M.V. ([email protected]).
mistakenly to some a focus on climate change and recent, anthropogenic modifications in landscapes and their dependent biotas, it seems entirely appropriate within the context of historical development of the earth and its biotas. In their introduction to this volume, the editors discuss various definitions of biogeography and then briefly summarize the history of the field, focusing on different approaches for reconstructing the historical development of regional biotas. As almost every student of historical biogeography realizes quickly, the history of this field is fraught with contentious debates among alternate schools, which often degrade into contemptuous clashes among their champions. Although controversy is of course part and parcel of most, if not all, scientific crisis and revolutions [1], a rapprochement among debating schools and a reintegration of long divergent lines of study will be best served if these debates are tempered and waged on scientific and not personal grounds. The first chapter, by David M. Williams, chronicles one of these legendary clashes – the debates between Ernst Haeckel and Louis Agassiz and their students over the utility of the threefold parallelism (the synthesis of paleontology, systematics and ontogeny) and the importance of geographic variation in reconstructing genealogies. Lynne Parenti’s chapter is the first in this volume to review and critique the current state of the field and to discuss potential synthesis among its various camps, in particular, cladistic and phylogenetic biogeography. Here, she presents a cogent and persuasive argument for achieving a new synthesis, which Donn Rosen called for nearly three decades ago: ’a revolution in the earth sciences – an integrated natural history of the geological and biological systems’. John Grehan’s chapter is a more specialized one, 9
Update
TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution Vol.23 No.1
using distribution patterns of Microseris (Angiosperms: Asteraceae) to illustrate how analyses of biogeographical distributions can provide insights into the relationships among organisms. This chapter includes a critique and rather negative assessment of Darwinian biogeographers who, according to Grehan, ‘look to historical theories of ecology, systematics, molecular clocks, and geology – anything but distributions themselves – as the empirical data of biogeography’. Again using case studies, but in a broader perspective in their chapter, Berhard Hausdorf and Christian Hennig develop an analytical approach to assess the importance of vicariance in shaping biotas, in this case using land snail distributions in north-west Europe and the Mediterranean to demonstrate their method and its abilities to detect patterns and alternative, underlying processes. Tod Stuessy’s chapter on the evolution of specific and genetic diversity in insular floras is perhaps the best example in this volume of the potential for integration of ecological and historical traditions in biogeography. The model he presents is, in many ways, reminiscent of E. O. Wilson’s taxon cycle, which described the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of insular faunas. In her chapter on event-based biogeography, Isabel Sanmartin presents an interesting review and a persuasive case for integrating alternative approaches in historical biogeography. She asserts that the best means of achieving such an integration is to base historical reconstructions on the fundamental events or processes – vicariance, duplication (speciation), extinction and dispersal. Brett Riddle and David Hafner present another interesting and constructive review of alternative methods in historical biogeography, focusing on phylogeography and its potential integration with area-based historical approaches. Their positive perspective is both refreshing and compelling, emphasizing the strengths and complementary aspects of what all-to-often are viewed as competing and incompatible approaches for reconstructing the development of biotas. The final chapter in this volume is a surprising but, in retrospect, perhaps fitting capstone because it reminds us
that, like any period of crisis and revolution in the sciences, historical biogeography is still fraught with contentious debates among its practitioners. The participants in these clashes not only challenge each other but, of much greater import, they simultaneously challenge some of the fundamental premises and long-standing theories of those disciplines. In this chapter, Dennis McCarthy reviews what he sees as inabilities of the accepted paradigm of plate tectonics theory and vicariance and dispersalist hypotheses to explain transoceanic disjunctions. I would have preferred, given the mixed tenor and diversity of views presented in various chapters of this volume, that it included a general conclusion along with a prospective on the frontiers of the field. Others more familiar with various research programs in historical biogeography than I am might have identified other promising lines of research and conceptual advances that could have been included in this volume. Yet, as it stands, this book does serve as a provocative summary of some of the more interesting challenges and potential means of advancing historical biogeography. In addition to desiring a bit more input from the editors in terms of a general conclusion and a more affordable, paperback version of this volume, I would also have favored a larger format and a bit more attention to the illustrations. Most of these are of high quality but, when presented in small format and just on a portion of a page, most of the detail of some of the maps is lost or at least difficult to appreciate. These quibbles aside, the volume includes an interesting collection of essays that characterize the current state of historical biogeography and some of its most important or controversial ideas and promising directions for future research. References 1 Kuhn, T.S. (1994) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press 0169-5347/$ – see front matter ß 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2007.08.014 Available online 5 November 2007
Book Review
Valuing what most will never see The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology and Conservation of the Deep Sea by Tony Koslow, University of Chicago Pres, 2007. £22.50/US$35.00 hbk (312 pages) ISBN 0 226 45124 9
Robert Vrijenhoek Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039, USA
Historically, human populations have flourished along narrow margins of land that border vast ocean basins. The oceans cover nearly 70% of our planet and have sustained us with food and entertainment, facilitated our transportation, and, unfortunately, provided a convenient garbage dump that seemed boundless. Now we are painfully aware 10
of the oceans’ limits. Fisheries are suffering worldwide, many of our favorite beaches are polluted, ice shelves are melting, and scientific concepts like global warming and ocean acidification have captivated the popular media. Most people only experience a few meters of the ocean’s surface and consider its deep basins as mysterious and dangerous places, full of monstrous creatures sheltered eternally from humanity by darkness, cold and intense pressures. The Silent Deep is a call-to-arms, inspiring us