New Zealand biogeography: A panbiogeographic approach

Abstract

The history of biogeography is briefly reviewed in relation to the dispersal/vicariance controversy. A cladistic analysis of known good dispersers, the admiral butterflies (Bassaris and Vanessa), provides a basis to assess the relative roles of dispersal and vicariance in generating geographic distribution patterns. Cladistic parsimony analyses of geographic distribution and phylogenetic data for Gondwanic and circum-antarctic taxa are used to appraise some of the varied views on the biogeographic classification and relationships of New Zealand. The new panbiogeographic approach to New Zealand’s biogeographic classification is outlined and its conceptual links with geology reviewed. New models and explanations for two classic problems in New Zealand biogeography, the origin of the Chatham Islands biota and the mid-South Island glacial gap, are presented. These are based on track and cladistic analyses.