Biology 862
Altaba, C. 1998. Testing
vicariance: melanopsid snails and Neogene tectonics in the western Mediterranean. Journal of Biogeography 25:541-551. Although
the title of the paper begins with ‘Testing vicariance,’ the author never tests his hypothesis. He instead provides a narrative of Mediterranean
geology. A good ‘what not to do’ example!
Bermingham, E., Freeman, S., and Wood, C. 1992. Vicariance biogeography in the Pleistocene and
speciation in North American wood warblers: A test of Mengel’s model. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
89:6624-6628. Habitat
fragmentation and subsequent speciation caused by Pleistocene glaciation is a classic
vicariance scenario. However, this paper
indicates that, at least for wood warblers, this may not have been the case. Along with other recent papers, it suggests that
most avian speciation events were pre-Pleistocene and, therefore, vicariance caused by
glaciation is less important than was previously thought.
Bowen, B. W. and Grant W. S. 1997. Phylogeography of the sardines (Sardinops Spp.): assessing biogeographic models and
population histories in temperate upwelling zones. Evolution
51:1601-1610. Although
one does not usually think of marine species as having long-term dispersal barriers, this
paper addresses one such possible barrier: tropical waters are lethal to some temperate
fish. However, the authors found that the
distribution of sardines is most likely due to dispersal.
Bremer, K. Ancestral areas: A cladistic reinterpretation of
the center of origin concept. Systematic
Biology 41:436-445. Bremer
argues that dispersal is a valid process and constructs a method as an alternative to
purely narrative explanations. His method
uses Camin-Sokal parsimony to estimate the ancestral range of taxa. He rejects the ‘null model’ of
vicariance biogeography: that ancestral distributions were the same as current
distributions.
Brooks, D. R. 1990. Parsimony analysis in historical biogeography and
coevolution: methodological and theoretical update. Systematic
Zoology 39:14-30. Brooks parsimony analysis (BPA) was first proposed to
evaluate cospeciation hypotheses. Brooks also
extended his method to area-taxa analysis. Brooks
presents a new, improved BPA in this paper. I
found parts of this paper, particularly the tables, confusing. I had an easier time following Wiley’s (1988)
summary of BPA.
Connor, E. F. 1991. Assessing
the method of quantitative vicariance biogeography: a simulation study of phenetic
similarity analysis. In Dudley, E. C., ed. The Unity of Evolutionary Biology. Dioscorides Press, Portland, Oregon. This
paper proposes a method for evaluating methods of historical biogeography: simulating an
area, subjecting it to a vicariant event, and then testing whether the method in question
can recover the true area history. The paper
reveals the surprising (to me) result that the phenetic similarity method actually
recovers the correct area relationship over 90% of the time.
Croizat, L., Nelson, G., and Rosen, D.
E. 1974. Centers of origin and related
concepts. Systematic Zoology 23:265-287. This paper
rejects the Darwinian center of origin theory in favor of vicariance. The authors advocate “generalized track
analysis,” which seems to be a way of tracing the history of taxa and comparing
patterns of distribution. This rather odd
paper quotes extensively from various sources and cites no less than 10 references by
Croizat.
Hausdorf, B. 1998. Weighted ancestral area analysis and a solution of
the redundant distribution problem. Systematic
Biology 47:445-456. Hausdorf attempts to revise Bremer’s ancestral
area method of analysis by weighting plesiomorphic branches over apomorphic branches and
using reversible parsimony rather than Camin-Sokal parsimony.
Heads, M. 1999. Vicariance biogeography and terrane tectonics in
the South Pacific: analysis of the genus Abrotanella
(Compositae). Biological Journal of the
Linnean Society 67:391-432. A very long paper that provides an
interesting, if somewhat narrative, overview of Abrotanella biogeography, relying heavily
on geology. Although the extensive geologic
information is fascinating, there is little emphasis on phylogeny.
Hovenkamp, P. 1997. Vicariance events, not areas, should be used in
biogeographical analysis. Cladistics
13:67-79. Not worth reading.
Hovenkamp first insists that using taxa as characters on an area cladogram is
inappropriate, but then proposes a method which I was unable to distinguish from the
methods he criticized.
Macey, J. R., Schulte, J. A., Larson,
A., Fang, Z., Wang, Y., Tuniyev, B. S., and Papenfuss, T. J. 1998. Phylogenetic
relationships of toads in the Bufo bufo
species group from the eastern escarpment of the Tibetan Plateau: A case of vicariance and
dispersal. Molecular Phylogenetics and
Evolution 9:80-87. This paper distinguishes between vicariance and
dispersal hypotheses by evaluating whether populations from similar elevations or the same
river basins are monophyletic. It finds a
combination of vicariance and dispersal events.
Mayden, R. L. 1988. Vicariance biogeography, parsimony, and evolution
in North American freshwater fishes. Systematic
Zoology 37:329-355. This excellent study considers the phylogeny of seven
highland fish clades and correlates the relationships with changes in river drainages
during the Pleistocene.
Murphy, W. J. and Collier, G. E. 1997. A
molecular phylogeny for aplocheiloid fishes (Atherinomorpha: Cyprinodontiformes): The role
of vicariance and the origins of annualism. Molecular
Biology and Evolution 14:790-799. The authors construct a phylogeny for aplocheiloids
in order to evaluate dispersal/vicariance hypotheses.
They conclude that the deep splits in this clade correspond to the breaking up of
the supercontinent Gondwanaland.
Page, R. D. M. 1988. Quantitative cladistic biogeography: constructing
and comparing area cladograms. Systematic
Zoology 37:254-270. Page describes methods of constructing area cladograms
and urges explicit statistical tests of congruence. He
also advises caution in drawing conclusions based solely on congruence of tree, since
congruent trees could indicate congruent dispersal, but incongruent trees do not
necessarily rule out a vicariant event.
Repetur, C. P., Van Welzen, P. C., and
De Vogel, E. F. 1997. Phylogeny and
historical biogeography of the genus Bromheadia
(Orchidaceae). Systematic Botany 22:465-477. This paper
used Brooks parsimony analysis and Bremer’s ancestral areas method to determine the
history of this genus. The authors concluded
that both vicariance and dispersal were important factors and, interestingly, that most
speciation in this group is sympatric.
Ronquist, F. 1997. Dispersal-vicariance analysis: a new approach to
the quantification of historical biogeography. Systematic
Biology 46:195-203. Ronquist proposes a method to evaluate biogeography by
explicitly considering vicariance, dispersal, and extinction. He assigns costs to dispersal and extinction and
accepts the tree with the lowest score as the most likely to be correct.
Rosen, D. E. 1978. Vicariant patterns and historical explanation in
biogeography. Systematic Zoology 27:159-188. One
of the classic papers in vicariance biogeography. Rosen
proposes using reduced area cladograms to determine whether a vicariance event has taken
place, and gives an example of reduced area cladograms using two species of freshwater
fish. A ‘must-read.’
Schulte, J. A., Macey, J. R., Espinoza,
R. E. and Larson, A. 2000. Phylogenetic relationships in the iguanid lizard
genus Liolaemus: multiple origins of viviparous
reproduction and evidence for recurring Andean vicariance and dispersal. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
69:75-102. Interesting but long paper evaluating biogeographic and
life history hypotheses. The authors
conclude that the lizards’ distributions are due to recurring vicariance and
dispersal.
Shields, O. 1998. Upper Triassic Pacific vicariance as a test of
geological theories. Journal of Biogeography
25:203-211. This paper attempts to test broad geological theories
by examining a wide range of taxa on either side of the Pacific. However, the evidence is pretty sketchy and,
although the author explains the importance of molecular dating, he does not provide
molecular evidence to corroborate his hypothesis.
Strange, R. M. and Burr, B. M. 1997. Intraspecific phylogeography of North American
highland fishes: a test of the Pleistocene vicariance hypothesis. Evolution 51:885-897. Strange
and Burr test the hypothesis that the highland fish fauna of N. Amer. were separated into
disjunct distributions by Pleistocene glaciation. They
do not find congruence between the 6 fish taxa that they use in their study.
Taylor, D. J., Finston, T. L., and
Herbert, P. D. N. 1998. Biogeography of a
widespread freshwater crustacean: pseudocongruence and cryptic endemism in the North
American Daphnia laevis complex. Evolution 52:1648-1670. This
paper emphasizes the importance of dating lineage splits and comparing the relative dates
to vicariance events. A lineage split in
Daphnia originally appeared to be the result of Pleistocene glaciation, but molecular data
estimates the split at about 12 m.y.a.! An
example of ‘pseudocongruence.’
Van Tuinen, M., Sibley, C. G., and
Hedges, S. B. 1998. Phylogeny and
biogeography of ratite birds inferred from DNA sequences of the mitochondrial ribosomal
genes. Molecular Biology and Evolution
15:370-376. This paper deals with a hotly debated question in
biogeography – are the ratite birds an example of convergent evolution or are they
closely related? This paper presents
molecular evidence to support the hypothesis that ratites are derived from a common
ancestor which was fragmented during the breakup of Gondwanaland.
Voelker, G. 1999. Dispersal,
vicariance, and clocks: historical biogeography and speciation in a cosmopolitan passerine
genus (Anthus: Motacillidae). Evolution 53:1536-1552. Voelker introduces molecular clocks to the study
of historical biogeography, insisting that they can help in evaluating vicariance
hypotheses by timing splits between taxa. He
uses Ronquist’s DIVA method and Bremer’s ancestral area method to make
hypotheses about the ancestral range of pipits.
Wiley, E. O. 1988. Vicariance Biogeography. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics
19:513-542. Review article.
Contains a great list of references for pre-1988 vicariance papers. Valuable for its overview of vicariance
biogeography as well as for its review and evaluation of methods.