Identification of Biotic Components - Evolutionary Biogeography - page 94

References
Christiansen, K., and D. Culver. 1987. Biogeography and the distribution of cave Colle-
mbola. Journal of Biogeography 14:459-477.
CASE STUDY 4.2 Distributional Patterns of Mexican Marine Mam-
mals
Aguilar-Aguilar and Contreras-Medina (2001) undertook a panbiogeographic ana-
lysis of the marine mammals (Cetartiodactyla, Sirenia, and Carnivora) represented
in Mexico, with the aim of identifying their distributional patterns. The authors se-
lected forty-five species from published lists (Aurioles 1993; Salinas and Ladrón
de Guevara 1993), excluding those that were cosmopolitan or with a very restric-
ted distribution. Some individual tracks are represented in figs. 4.8a - 4.8f .
Three generalized tracks were identified ( fig. 4.8g ) . One generalized track is
located in the northern Pacific Ocean, ranging from the eastern coasts of Asia to
the western coasts of North America. Another generalized track in the Americ-
an Pacific is located in the central and southern Pacific Ocean, including the Gulf
of California. The third generalized track, located in the central Atlantic Ocean,
ranges from equatorial Africa to South America, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of
Mexico, including parts of eastern North America.
The two Pacific Ocean generalized tracks overlap in a node in the Gulf of
California ( fig. 4.8g ). Aguilar-Aguilar and Contreras-Medina (2001) found that, on
one hand, the northern Pacific Ocean generalized track is congruent with the dis-
tributions of the beetle genus Diaulota, the chaetognath Sagitta euneritica, and
the algal genus Macrocystis . On the other hand, despite not inhabiting the Mex-
ican coasts, several species of marine mammals display a congruent distribu-
tion with the northern Pacific Ocean track, such as the marine wolves Eumeto-
pias jubatus and Callorhinus ursinus and the whales Mesoplodon carlhubbsi and
M. stejnegeri . This generalized track is compatible with the reconstruction of the
northern part of the Pacifica paleocontinent (Nur and Ben-Avraham 1980). The
American Pacific generalized track is congruent with a generalized track proposed
by Croizat (1958b) for terrestrial organisms and with the distribution of the chaeto-
gnath Sagitta bierii, the jellyfish Phyalopsis diegensis, and the algae Codium pic-
turatum . The Atlantic Ocean generalized track is congruent with Wegener's (1929)
proposal and is similar to the transoceanic Atlantic track found by Croizat (1958b)
for terrestrial organisms.