Identification of Biotic Components - Evolutionary Biogeography - page 81

Figure 4.2 Obtaining an individual track. (a) Localities of distribution of a species;
(b) choosing a locality and joining it to its nearest locality; (c-f) joining the remaining
localities based on their proximity.
A phylogenetic criterion can be used for orienting the track of a supra-
specific taxon. The interpretation of the phylogenetic criterion in Croizat's
work was confined to the fact that tracks connected areas or localities of
the same taxonomic group (family, genus, or species), thus implying mono-
phyly. Page (1987) suggested the possibility of using cladistic information
for orienting individual tracks ( fig. 4.4b ) , and his suggestion was accepted
by Craw (1988a), Henderson (1989), and Grehan (1991). McDowall (1978)
discussed the possibility of testing generalized tracks, noting the problem of
using phylogenetic criteria to construct the individual tracks on which they
are based. Platnick and Nelson (1988) noticed that the application of this cri-
terion can be analogous to that of Hennig's progression rule. If the results of
panbiogeographic analyses represent hypotheses of primary biogeographic
homology, which we will falsify in a cladistic biogeographic analysis (Mor-
rone 2001c), it seems problematic to orient the tracks by means of phylo-
genetic information. This implies that the phylogenetic hypotheses are part
of both the panbiogeographic and cladistic biogeographic analyses, falling
in a circular sequence of reasoning. Therefore, I find it inappropriate to use
this criterion.