A comparative review of cladistic approaches to historical biogeography of southern South America

Abstract

Cladistic historical biogeographic studies on the austral continents are briefly reviewed with special reference to southern South America. The biogeography of marsupials, southern beeches and the relationships of New Zealand and southern South America are compared. No general pattern of interrelationships is common to all the analyses. Differences in delimitation of areas, selection of taxa and techniques applied are discussed as possible causes of incongruities. The comparative review of these empirical studies reveals that, although it is valid to investigate the existence of a unique pattern of interrelationships among areas of endemism, this cannot be considered as an a priori assumption in the analyses.