[Taxacom] Dispersal... again

[John Grehan]

Heads as amply covered most points so below are just a few specific comments.

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Kenneth Kinman


> John Grehan in particular seems to exaggerate problems with molecular clocks and 
> suggesting long fossil gaps, even when such exaggerations stretch credulity (as in the
> case where he objects to Nile crocodiles dispersing across the Atlantic).   

I state the problems as they are - the fact that a minimal estimate is a minimal estimate no matter how much others may wish to turn the water into wine. As for credulity, it is neither here nor there as it is just an expression of what one may individually believe and what one believes has no necessary relation to reality.  

> Anyway, I feel more comfortable criticizing John Grehan in some of his present-day 

I always welcome criticism of my knee-jerk reactions'

John Grehan

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Jason wrote:
      Please tell me how vicariance is not mentioned, in equal footing, in this quote. (for those interested the article can be found in this link
http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v099n03/p0616-p0622.pdf)
 
Michael Heads responded:  
      Of course it is?mentioned. But?Mayr's?center of origin/dispersal analyses (and Pleistocene vicariance) were?the standard model for biogeography since the 1940s and for many authors still are. In the quote above,?Joseph?bemoaned?the effect that Mayr's work?had had on Australian ornithology, but Mayr's work had?a

similar influence?in many other parts of the world. Whether a biogeographer was working on the fauna of?Winneba or Wewak, he or she?was?supposed?to study the?'colonization' of the area.??Evidently, it was untenable and not worthy of discussion to think that birds could have been in Australia all along?. 



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