vicariance biogeography

views updated May 29 2018

vicariance biogeography A school of biogeographical thought, derived from panbiogeography, whose supporters maintain that the distribution of organisms depends on their normal means of dispersal (e.g. disjunctions are explicable in terms of new barriers (rivers, rises in sea level, etc.) having split formerly continuous ranges, rather than in terms of the organisms hopping over already existing barriers). Thus they reject sweepstakes routes and similar concepts, postulating instead former land bridges and even vanished continents where there is sufficient coincident plant and animal distribution.

vicariance biogeography

views updated Jun 27 2018

vicariance biogeography A school of biogeographical thought, derived from panbiogeography, whose supporters maintain that the distribution of organisms depends on their normal means of dispersal (e.g. disjunctions are explicable in terms of new barriers (rivers, rises in sea level, etc.) having split formerly continuous ranges, rather than in terms of the organisms hopping over already existing barriers). Thus they reject sweepstake routes and similar concepts, postulating instead former land bridges and even vanished continents where there is sufficient coincident plant and animal distribution.

vicariance biogeography

views updated May 23 2018

vicariance biogeography A school of biogeographical thought, derived from Croizat's panbiogeography. Supporters of this school maintain that the distribution of organisms depends on their normal means of dispersal; e.g., disjunctions are explicable in terms of new barriers (rivers, rises in sea-level, etc.) having split formerly continuous ranges, rather than in terms of the organisms hopping over already existing barriers. Thus, they reject sweepstake routes and similar concepts, postulating instead former land bridges and even vanished continents where there is sufficient coincident plant and animal distribution.

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