GEOG 235. Biogeography

--Zoogeographic Provinces Exercise--

Instructions: This exercise is based upon the data provided for mammalian families in the section on Zoogeographic Provinces. You will also need an image of the physical geography of the continents, including their location and size (area ). Write down your answers on a clean piece of paper and turn them into the instructor on the day they are due.

I. Compare the mammalian families that comprise each of the six Zoogeographic Provinces.

  • A. According to what three characteristics of mammalian families are the six regions known as Zoogeographic Provinces determined?

    1:2:3:

  • B. Rank the zoogeographic provinces in terms of each of the three charactaeristics you identified. (What you have written under number 1 in part A should be inserted in (1.) in this section, and so forth.) Below each characteristic list the provinces in order of descending rank as suggested by the chart below.

    rankCharacteristics
    Rank1. 2. 3.
    #1 (most)
    #2
    #3
    #4
    #5
    #6 (least)

    How did you handle the number of endemic families? Did you think in terms of the absolute number of endemic familes (the raw data) or the percentage of the total families that are endemic (manuipulated data)? Are the rankings the same for each measure? Which do you think might be a more important measure of the biogeographic nature of the regions? Why?

    II. Based on your rankings in part I-B., formulate three "Zoogeographic Rules" that relate taxonomic patterns to the physical geography of the provinces themselves.

    Hint: model the (sentence) structure of your rules on the ecogeographic rules of Bergmann, Allen and Golger.

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    Created by Susan Woodward, August 15, 1997. Last updated 8/15/97 by SLW.