Advances in historical biogeography

Abstract

Biogeography is the study of plant and animal distribution. Historical biogeography attempts to reconstruct the biota history of the earth. Reviving rapidly and shaking thoroughly the one century long dominance of dispersal theory in biogeography during the 1960s, vicariance biogeography theory is now playing a leading role in the field of historcal biogeography. The vicariance theory includes four approaches-phylogenetic biogeography, cladistic vicariance biogeography, parsimony analysis of endemicities (PAE), and panbiogeography, each different from the other in philosophy and/or methodology. The model of island biogeography theory is tested with a number of taxa in a broad range of environments. Refugia theory is developing by way of new models and testing strategies. Finally, some measures are suggested to deal with the problem of how to develop the field of biogeography, especially of historical biogeography in China.