PPT Slide

What about dispersal?

Both methods of biogeography include dispersal as a major factor in the distribution of organisms. But the emphasis is quite different in the two.

• Center of origin accepts dispersal as the primary source of distributions, occurring usually after speciation.

• Vicariance accepts dispersal as the source of ancestral biotas, but emphasizes vicariance over dispersal as a source of speciation.

Dispersal can always be invoked to explain all distributions. Is that a problem?

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