Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5.24
Biogeographic analysis of the Hominoidea, Hyaenidae, and Proboscidea by
Folinsbee and Brooks (2007). (a) Taxon-area cladogram of the superfamily Hominoidea;
(b) taxon-area cladogram of the family Hyaenidae; (c) taxon-area cladogram of the order
Proboscidea; (d) general area cladogram obtained with PACT. Af, Africa; As, Asia; Eu,
Europe; NA, North America; SA, South America.
Folinsbee and Brooks's (2007) analysis situated hominoid diversification within
the complex history of biotic diversification and extinction of large land vertebrates
in the Miocene. The dispersal of
Homo
out of Africa in the Pliocene is not a unique
event in human evolution but another episode in the taxon pulse diversification of
Old World biotas.
Andrews (2007) analyzed paleoecological evidence, concluding that Folinsbee
and Brooks's (2007) hypothesis was unsupported. He stated that the early ex-
pansion of
Homo erectus
into Asia by the beginning of the Pleistocene could
have been possible only for a large, carnivorous species. Additionally, in the
Late Miocene, when Folinsbee and Brooks (2007) suggested ancestral hominines
reentered Africa along with hyaenids and Proboscidea, fossil apes were small,
partly arboreal frugivores or herbivores that lacked the dispersal means enjoyed
by the other two groups that enabled them to achieve intercontinental geographic
ranges.
References
Andrews, P. 2007. The biogeography of hominid evolution.
Journal of Biogeography
34:381-382.
Folinsbee, K. E. and D. R. Brooks. 2007. Miocene hominoid biogeography: Pulses of
dispersal and differentiation.
Journal of Biogeography
34:383-397.
Wojcicki, M. and D. R. Brooks. 2004. Escaping the matrix: A new algorithm for phylo-
genetic comparative studies of coevolution.
Cladistics
20:341-361.
Wojcicki, M. and D. R. Brooks. 2005. PACT: An efficient and powerful algorithm for
generating area cladograms.
Journal of Biogeography
32:755-774.
Morrone and Carpenter (1994) compared empirically four cladistic biogeo-
graphic methods: component analysis, BPA, three area statement analysis,
and tree reconciliation analysis. They analyzed ten different data sets from
the literature, calculating the items of error necessary to reconcile the ori-
ginal taxon-area cladograms with the different general area cladograms ob-
tained. They concluded that none of the methods was consistently better
than the others, producing results that might be considered the least am-
