Vicariance and dispersal in Caribbean biogeography

Abstract

The species diversity and phylogenetic relationships of West Indian vertebrates are incompletely known, but several lines of evidence support a dispersal origin for most of the fauna. Crother and Guyer have contested much of that evidence, claiming a far greater role for vicariance. However, it is shown here that none of their criticisms can be substantiated and their paper is dominated by inconsistencies. They have used the irrelevant evidence from intra-Caribbean vicariance events to address the origin of the fauna, failed to discriminate between old and new geologic syntheses by the same authors, chosen molecular estimates of divergence time randomly rather than with respect to phylogeny, attempted to diminish the consequences of a catastrophic event in Earth history (the K-T bolide impact), and have claimed to have discovered a congruent pattern of area relationships when in fact their proposed phylogenetic pattern is present in only a single, unpublished study.