[Taxacom] Taxacom Digest, Vol 133, Issue 7

[Antonio López Almirall]

1. Metapopulation vicariance paper (John Grehan)
The phenomenon you describe is good for us, but a lineage can remain in the 
area for much more than ten million years. Cuba is an oceanic island formed 
from a volcanic arc. Lives in a small territory of Cuba the only species of 
pine "silvestris" section that there is in America, Pinus tropicalis 
Morelet. Relatives of this species are in Eurasia, except the Cuban and 
another in Canary Islands close to Africa. The species, according to the 
molecular clock bottom has 40 million years old slightly to the Greater 
Antilles. That means that lineage was there much earlier, probably during 
fractionation of Pangea, before forming of the Caribbean plate. Therefore, 
the only possible explanation for their presence is yours.
Antonio López Almirall
Presidente del Consejo Científico
Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Cuba
cycas3004 at gmail.com, cycas at mnhnc.inf.cu