This is one of the types of hypothesis we could put together
What I'm going to try to show here is that there are very clear patterns with areas of endemism in south, west, and east of Australia as well as very interesting, clear areas of endemism to the north, and eastern Australia is somewhat of a hybrid area. Thus, if we look at the Kimberly Plateau, a lot of species that are endemic to the Kimberley have their close relatives in Arnhemland and they, in turn, have their close relatives in Cape York are often related to one another, and Atherton Plateau, and New Guinea. Moreover, New Guinea and Cape York are often related to one another, and Atherton Plateau is often related to the eastern forest region of Australia.
The western desert and eastern desert are related to one another. Many times in the past people have said well, there's an area down here in the southwest and an area here in the western desert and they're really close to one another geographically, therefore, the species in those areas must be closely related.But we're finding out that they're related in different ways phylogenetically and biogeographically. Thus, western desert is related to eastern desert. The southwest and southeast are very closely related to one another, and the southeast often has species that are widespread through the entire eastern forest area. So there's a series of relationships among different species of birds that relate in these two general patterns and this way we have an hypothesis about how the biota - how the bird fauna - of Australia may have evolved.
|
Narrative Index
BioForum Index
