Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Establishing a Framework for a Natural Area Taxonomy

  • Regular Article
  • Published:
Acta Biotheoretica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The identification of areas of endemism is essential in building an area classification, but plays little role in how natural areas are discovered. Rather area monophyly, derived from cladistics, is essential in the discovery of natural area classifications or area taxonomy. We propose Area Taxonomy to be a new sub-discipline of historical biogeography, one that can be revised and debated, and which has its own area nomenclature. Separately to area taxonomy, we outline how natural areas may be discovered by transcribing the concepts of homology and monophyly from biological systematics to historical biogeography, in the form of area homologues, area homologies and area monophyly.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. We use the terminology of Parenti and Ebach. Areas of endemism are defined as “an area characterized by the overlapping distributions of two or more taxa" (Parenti and Ebach 2009, p.252; see also Planick 1991, p. iii). Endemic areas are defined as "the geographical area to which a taxon or biota is understood to be native" (Parenti and Ebach 2009, p. 253).

  2. We define taxonomy to be the practice of biological classification. Taxonomy is herein synonymous with systematics.

References

  • Aagesen L, Szumik C, Goloboff P (2013) Consensus in the search for areas of endemism. J Biogeogr 40:2011–2016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashlock PD (1971) Monophyly and associated terms. Syst Zool 20:63–69. doi:10.2307/2412223

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashlock PD (1984) Monophyly: its meaning and importance. In: Duncan T, Stuessy TF (eds) Cladistics: perspectives on the reconstruction of evolutionary history. Columbia University Press, New York, pp 39–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackwelder RE (1967) Taxonomy: a text and reference book. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bremer K (1992) Ancestral areas: a cladistic reinterpretation of the center of origin concept. Syst Biol 41:436–445. doi:10.1093/sysbio/41.4.436

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crother BI, Murray CM (2011) Ontology of areas of endemism. J Biogeogr 38:1009–1015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crowson RA (1970) Classification and biology. Heinemann Educational Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Deo AJ, DeSalle R (2006) Nested areas of endemism analysis. J Biogeogr 33:1511–1526. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01559.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ebach MC, Michael MS (2016). From Correlation to Causation: What Do We Need in the Historical Sciences? 1–24. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-016-9282-3

  • Ebach MC, Morrone JJ, Parenti LR, Viloria ÁL (2008) International code of area nomenclature. J Biogeogr 35:1153–1157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ebach MC, Gill AC, Kwan AC, Ahyong ST, Murphy DJ, Cassis G (2013) Towards an Australian bioregionalisation atlas: a provisional area taxonomy of Australia’s biogeographical regions. Zootaxa 3619:315–342. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3619.3.4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ebach MC, González-Orozco CE, Miller JT, Murphy DJ (2015) A revised area taxonomy of phytogeographical regions within the Australian Bioregionalisation Atlas. Phytotaxa. Zool 29:80–58. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.208.4.2

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall R (2013) The palaeogeography of Sundaland and Wallacea since the late Jurassic. J Limnol 72:1–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hennig W (1966) Phylogenetic systematics. University of Illinois Press, Urbana

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull DL (1988) Science as a process: an evolutionary account of the social and conceptual development of science. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Humphries CJ, Ebach MC (2004) Biogeography on a dynamic Earth. In: Lomolino M, Brown J (eds) Frontiers of biogeography: new directions in the geography of nature. Sinauer Press, Sunderland, pp 67–86

    Google Scholar 

  • Irimia R-E, Pérez-Escobar OA, Gottschling M (2015) Strong biogeographic signal in the phylogenetic relationships of Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales). Plant Syst Evol 301:1509–1516. doi:10.1007/s00606-014-1162-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matzke NJ (2014) Model selection in historical biogeography reveals that founder-event speciation is a crucial process in island clades. Syst Biol 63:951–970

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michaux B (2010) Biogeology of Wallacea: geotectonic models, areas of endemism, and natural biogeographical units. Biol J Linnean Soc 101:193–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michaux B, Leschen RAB (2005) East meets west: biogeology of the Campbell Plateau. Biol J Linnean Soc 86:95–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrone JJ (2014) Parsimony analysis of endemicity (PAE) revisited. J Biogeogr 41:842–854

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray CM, Crother BI (2015) Entities on a Temporal Scale. Acta Biotheretica. doi:10.1007/s10441-015-9269-5

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliveira U, Brescovit AD, Santos AJ (2015) Delimiting areas of endemism through kernel interpolation. PLoS ONE 10:e0116673

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parenti LR, Ebach MC (2009) Comparative biogeography: discovering and classifying biogeographical patterns of a dynamic earth. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Platnick NI (1991) On areas of endemism. In: Ladiges PY, Humphries CJ, Martenelli LW (eds) Austral Biogeography. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, pp 3–5

    Google Scholar 

  • Porzecanski AL, Cracraft J (2005) Cladistic analysis of distributions and endemism (CADE): using raw distributions of birds to unravel the biogeography of the South American aridlands. J Biogeogr 32:261–275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ree RH, Moore BR, Webb CO, Donoghue MJ (2005) A likelihood framework for inferring the evolution of geographic range on phylogenetic trees. Evolution 59:2299–2311

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ronquist F (1997) Dispersal-vicariance analysis: a new approach to quantification of historical biogeography. Syst Biol 46:195–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosauer D, Laffan SW, Crisp MD, Donnellan SC, Cook LG (2009) Phylogenetic endemism: a new approach for identifying geographical concentrations of evolutionary history. Mol Ecol 18:4061–4072. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2009.04311.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheben A, Bechteler J, Lee GE, Pócs T, Schäfer-Verwimp A, Heinrichs J (2016) Multiple transoceanic dispersals and geographical structure in the pantropical leafy liverwort Ceratolejeunea (Lejeuneaceae, Porellales). J Biogeogr 43:1739–1749

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Szumik CA, Goloboff A (2004) Areas of endemism: an improved optimality criterion. Syst Biol 53:968–977

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Szumik CA, Goloboff PA (2015) Higher taxa and the identification of areas of endemism. Cladistics 31:568–572

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uit de Weerd DR, Robinson DG, Rosenberg G (2016) Evolutionary and biogeographical history of the land snail family Urocoptidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) across the Caribbean region. J Biogeogr 43:763–777

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanderlaan TA, Ebach MC, Williams DM, Wilkins JS (2013) Defining and redefining monophyly: Haeckel, Hennig, Ashlock, Nelson and the proliferation of definitions. Aust Syst Bot 26:347–355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westermann GEG (2000) Biochore classification and nomenclature in paleobiogeography:an attempt at order. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 158:1–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkins JS, Ebach MC (2013) The nature of classification: relationships and kinds in the natural sciences. Springer, Dordrecht

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the 5 anonymous reviewers of an early version of this paper whose critiques led to significant improvements.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Palaeontology, Geobiology and Earth Archives Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Malte C. Ebach

  2. Private Bag, Kaukapakapa, 0843, New Zealand

    Bernard Michaux

Authors
  1. Malte C. Ebach
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bernard Michaux
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Malte C. Ebach.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ebach, M.C., Michaux, B. Establishing a Framework for a Natural Area Taxonomy. Acta Biotheor 65, 167–177 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-017-9310-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-017-9310-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation