The papers in this volume all deal with animals that have centers of endemism & diversity in the Greater Antilles. Contents: The Origins of the West Indian Butterfly Fauna, by F. Martin Brown; Some Aspects of the Herpetogeography of the West Indies, by Albert Schwartz; Zoogeography of Antillean Bats, by Robert J. Baker & Hugh H. Genoways; A Paleontological Perspective of West Indian Birds & Mammals, by Storrs L. Olson; & Derivations & Continental Affinities of Antillean Birds, by James Bond. Maps & illustrations.
Because historical biogeography—the study of historical causes of biotic distributions—is a comparative science, one must draw on data from many different disciplines. This book brings together for the first time the results of studies on a variety of insect groups native to the islands of the Caribbean, and is intended as an early progress report on the use of insects in biogeographical research from this area. The Caribbean has been of great interest to zoogeographers because of its geologic position and history, and because the fauna is of limited diversity relative to mainland America. This limited diversity coupled with the accessibility of the islands has resulted in the Caribbean fauna being relatively well known compared to other Neotropical faunas. Intriguing questions include how and when the West Indian islands became populated, how the fauna and flora of the islands relate to those of the continents, and whether the Caribbean islands served as a dispersal corridor between the Americas. As the interpretation of biographic patterns and knowledge of earth history go hand in hand, this book appropriately opens with a chapter reviewing the geology of the Caribbean and its land masses, including various interpretations of plate tectonics. Eight specialists on six orders of insects then present from study sites in the Caribbean the results of their research on the biogeographic distribution and historical biogeography of their study animals. A final chapter puts into a concise framework the various methods by which taxonomists approach biogeography.
This volume merges all geographical and paleogeographical data on all groups of the arachnofauna. The book features topics such as the ecological factors, climate and other barriers that influence the distribution of arachnida. It also elaborates on the characteristics of the distribution such as arachnida at high altitude (e.g. Himalaya), in caves, in polar regions and highlights differences between the arachnofauna of e.g. Mediterranean regions vs Central Europe, West African vs Indomalayan and more. Furthermore, amongst other topics the volume also includes chapters on the systems of arachnida, fossil orders, dispersal and dispersion, endemics and relicts, regional arachnogeography, cave and high altitude arachnida.
As a review of the status of biogeography in the West Indies in the 1980s, the first edition of Biogeography of the West Indies: Past, Present, and Future provided a synthesis of our current knowledge of the systematics and distribution of major plant and animal groups in the Caribbean basin. The totally new and revised Second Edition, Biogeography
The Anolis lizards of the Caribbean are ideally suited for the study of evolutionary ecology. Offering fascinating insights into the more than 150 species dispersed throughout the Caribbean islands, Jonathan Roughgarden details the differences between species in a wide range of behavioral and physical characteristics, including foraging behaviors, body size, and habitat use, resulting from evolutionary divergences concurrent with the plate-tectonic origins of the region. This book will be of interest to students and researchers--ecology and theoretical, tropical, and population biology.
