An Appraisal of the Vicariance hypothesis of Caribbean Biogeography and its Application to West Indian Terrestrial Vertebrates

An appraisal of the vicariance hypothesis of Caribbean biogeography and its application to West Indian terrestrial vertebrates. Syst. Zool., 30:147–155.—Antillean land vertebrates came from North and South America sometime in the past, but the question of when and by what means continues to segregate zoogeographers. The recently advocated vicariance hypothesis of Caribbean biogeography assumes a “proto-Antillean” archipelago that contained the antecedents of the modern West Indian biota. This hypothesis, however, is contradicted by current knowledge of Caribbean tectonics, the composition of the fauna itself, and the fossil record of North and South America. The evidence is more accurately interpreted as indicating that the Antilles are oceanic in origin, and modern terrestrial vertebrates probably began arriving by overwater dispersal during the Oligocene and continued to do so through the Quaternary.