[Taxacom] Factual tectonic and biological correlations

[Robinwbruce at aol.com]

John,
 
While browsing through some old biology books I came across Brian Goodwin's 
 comments on biology with respect to it trying to break free of Weismann's  
dualism of organism -
 
"While it is always possible that biology is basically different from the  
exact sciences in being dominated by historical accidents and lacking 
systematic  principles of organization, it seems much more likely that this view 
has arisen  as a result of a conceptual development which stresses one aspect 
of the  subject, the contingent and the particular, at the expense of the 
other, the  necessary and the universal" p. 222, A relational or field theory 
of  reproduction and its evolutionary implications, B.C. Goodwin; in Beyond 
 Neo-Darwinism: Ho and Saunders, 1984.
 
This resonated with me with respect to the on-going biogeography  threads 
and I thought it worthy of sharing.
 
Robin
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 03/05/2014 19:54:59 GMT Daylight Time,  
calabar.john at gmail.com writes:

As I  have noted in earlier postings, one of the most important
considerations in  biogeography is the potential for spatial analysis to
render information  that helps with understanding how the ability to
disperse actually  functions in the formation of allopatry (vicariance)
rather than relying on  speculations about dispersal ability to explain
allopatry (and as noted on  this list, quite often generates mysteries,
puzzles,  paradoxes,  enigmas and other perplexities (perhaps one day
someone should write a  paper giving a full list of publications of this
kind) rather than any  definitive insight.


With panbiogeographic approaches (whether or  not ‘panbiogeographic’ in the
formal sense) that look at the spatial  relationships between distribution
boundaries of differentiated entities  and tectonic boundaries, it is
certainly a relevant and necessary issue for  modern evolutionary biology to
address the fact (yes it’s a fact) that  there is as much correlation
between distribution and tectonics as there  is. In the almost frantic rush
to embrace molecular clocks, the science of  biogeography has, for the most
part, experienced a 20-30 year period akin  to the Dark Ages of Europe.  Now
even with the misrepresentation of  molecular ages as actual or maximal
having been shown to be a fiction, the  writers of the fiction continue to
push their way forward, as if somehow  reasserting the misrepresentation
will make it all true.


The  above opinions aside, Heads’ book does give many factual examples  of
biological and tectonic correlations. These examples are, in my  opinion,
where modern biogeography needs to make a new start – to address  the
spatial evidence and if correlations are to be denied as representing  cause
and effect, to provide evidence that is better than  misrepresented
molecular ages or simply saying “I cannot believe it” (or  words to that
effect).


John  Grehan
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