Open AccessBiogeographic disjunction along the Alpine fault, New Zealand
Author(s) -
Heads Michael
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
biological journal of the linnean society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.906
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1095-8312
pISSN - 0024-4066
DOI - 10.1111/j.1095-8312.1998.tb01512.x
Subject(s) - taxon , biology , subspecies , ecology , glacial period , alpine plant , alpine climate , extinction (optical mineralogy) , phylum , glacier , extant taxon , paleontology , evolutionary biology , bacteria
Eighty taxa (subspecies, species, species groups, genera and families) showing disjunction along the New Zealand Alpine fault (Australian/Pacific plate boundary) are documented and mapped. Four plant divisions, including 14 seed plant families, and four animal phyla, including 13 orders of insects, are represented. The disjunction has usually been explained by glaciers having wiped out central populations. However, the gap is often occupied by a related taxon and many alpine taxa are involved, and so extinction by glaciation seems unlikely as an explanation. It is proposed that the disjunction has been caused by the 480 km of lateral displacement on the fault.