Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
9
The Bigger Picture
Implications of Past Environmental Changes
in the New World
THE BIOTAS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA
AND EASTERN ASIA
Assembling information on ecosystem history provides an oppor-
tunity to consider other aspects of the New World biota. One of
these is an intercontinental biogeographic relationship between
eastern North America and eastern Asia that has intrigued biolo-
gists for more than 250 years since the issue was fi rst raised by
Carl Linnaeus and Jonas Halenius (Halenius 1750; Graham 1966,
1972a, b).
When Jonas P. Halen of the Uplands Nation of Sweden decided
to seek advanced training in botany in 1750, the obvious choice was
with the great Swedish naturalist Linnaeus (1707-78). First, how-
ever, he had to Latinize the name Halen for academic purposes,
just as Linnaeus had done earlier, although in the latter's case it
was more complicated. In eighteenth century Sweden, patronyms
were generally used. If the father's fi rst name were Ingemar, for
example, the children would simply be called Ingrid Ingemars
dot-
