2. Biogeography

When naturalists began to travel and study organisms from different parts of the globe, they observed interesting patterns in their geographical distributions. A number of patterns that emerged from examining the geographical distribution of species.

• Isolated islands harbor unique species of plants and animals. However, these organisms do bare some resemblance to species of plants and animals found on the nearest mainland.
• Islands with similar environments in different parts of the world do not appear to be populated with the same kinds of species. Instead, they are inhabited by species that are taxonomically closely related to the plants and the animals of the nearest mainland, where the environment is often quite different.
• Australia is comprised of a large number of species of marsupial mammals, but has relatively few species of placental mammals.
  Try to interpret this information in the context of the evolution paradigm. Go to the biogeography link to compare your thoughts to those of modern biologists.