Biogeography and primate evolution: scientific constraints on improbably events, Chris Beard

Biogeography and primate evolution: scientific constraints on improbably events

The geographic distributions of living and fossil primates indicate that this clade has repeatedly engaged in “sweepstakes dispersal” across marine barriers. As its name suggests, sweepstakes dispersal is supposed to be extremely rare and more or less random, making it difficult or even impossible to study scientifically. New data show that certain taxa of primates and other mammals have repeatedly “won” the dispersal lottery, especially at certain critical times of Earth history. This seminar employs these data to try to constrain what has always been viewed as a random process.