Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 6 September 1991:
Vol. 253. no. 5024, pp. 1099 - 1104
DOI: 10.1126/science.253.5024.1099
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

When Biotas Meet: Understanding Biotic Interchange

GEERAT J. VERMEIJ 1

1 Department of Geology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616

When the barrier between biotas with long separate histories breaks down, species invade from one biota to the other. Studies of episodes of marine and terrestrial biotic interchange that have occurred during the last 20 million years show that large-scale extinction of species before the onset of interchange renders biotas especially prone to invasion. As environments and species are being exploited and eliminated on an ever increasing scale in the human-dominated biosphere, the geographical expansion of species from biotas in which evolution of high competitive, defensive, and reproductive abilities has proceeded the furthest will become more frequent. Historical events and interactions are essential ingredients for understanding the current and future structure and composition of the world's biota.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Incumbency, diversity, and latitudinal gradients.
J. W. Valentine, D. Jablonski, A. Z. Krug, and K. Roy (2008)
Paleobiology 34, 169-178
   Full Text »    PDF »
Diversity partitioning of a Late Ordovician marine biotic invasion: controls on diversity in regional ecosystems.
M. E. Patzkowsky and S. M. Holland (2007)
Paleobiology 33, 295-309
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Crossing the impassable: genetic connections in 20 reef fishes across the eastern Pacific barrier.
H.A Lessios and D.R Robertson (2006)
Proc R Soc B 273, 2201-2208
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Majority rule: adaptation and the long-term dynamics of species.
G. J. Vermeij and G. P. Dietl (2006)
Paleobiology 32, 173-178
   Full Text »    PDF »
From Europe to America: Pliocene to Recent trans-Atlantic expansion of cold-water North Atlantic molluscs.
G. J Vermeij (2005)
Proc R Soc B 272, 2545-2550
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
One-way traffic in the western Atlantic: causes and consequences of Miocene to early Pleistocene molluscan invasions in Florida and the Caribbean.
G. J. Vermeij (2005)
Paleobiology 31, 624-642
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The biotic crisis and the future of evolution.
N. Myers and A. H. Knoll (2001)
PNAS 98, 5389-5392
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Lessons from the past: Evolutionary impacts of mass extinctions.
D. Jablonski (2001)
PNAS 98, 5393-5398
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The future of coral reefs.
N. Knowlton (2001)
PNAS 98, 5419-5425
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A HISTORY OF DIVERSIFICATION, EXTINCTION, AND INVASION IN TROPICAL AMERICA AS DERIVED FROM SPECIES-LEVEL PHYLOGENIES OF CHIONINE GENERA (FAMILY VENERIDAE).
(2001)
Journal of Paleontology 75, 644-657
Geographic Variation in the Molluscan Recovery from the End-Cretaceous Extinction.
D. Jablonski (1998)
Science 279, 1327-1330
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Diversity of Atlantic Coastal Plain Mollusks Since the Pliocene.
W. D. Allmon, W. D. Allmon, G. Rosenberg, R. W. Portell, and K. S. Schindler (1993)
Science 260, 1626-1629
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)