Here Be Dragons: How the Study of Animal & Plant Distributions Revolutionized Our Views of Life & Earth Book

Acknowledgments vii

List of Illustrations xi

Preface: "That Grand Subject" Biogeography as the fountainhead of scientific discovery and the unifying theory of life and Earth xv

1 Galápagan Epiphany 1

How the distributions of plants and animals led Darwin to the theory of evolution

2 The Mesosaurus Problem 20

How fossil locations helped revolutionize our view of Earth history

3 Pygmy Mammoths and Mysterious Islands 40

Why the geography of certain island groups, like Hawaii, Galápagos, and the Channel Islands, has turned them into a cauldron of evolutionary catalysts

4 The Volcanic Ring That Changed the World 70

How evolution and plate tectonics have operated in concert to govern the major biotic patterns and produce the Earth's most fascinating creatures in the most exotic locales

5 The Bloody Fall of South America and the Last of the Triassic Beak-Headed Reptiles 94

South America, Australia, and New Zealand as sanctuaries for "living fossils"

6 Enchanted Waters 118

Biogeography among the life aquatic

7 The Battle Over Eden 145

The controversy over the biogeographical history of the human race

8 The Grand Coalescence of Life and Earth 181

The past, present, and future of biogeography

Endnotes 195

Bibliography 205

Index 207