Abstract
C. A. Woods, F. E. Sergile (eds.). 2001. Biogeography of the West Indies: Patterns and Perspectives. 2nd ed. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 582 pp. ISBN 0-8493-2001-1, price (hardcover), $149.95. An area of complex geological history involving plate tectonics and volcanism, the West Indies has long been of interest to geologists, biogeographers, and evolutionary biologists. Like other island archipelagos, its faunas and floras exhibit high levels of endemicity and reduced and taxonomically skewed diversity. The mammal fauna, for example, currently includes 4 endemic families, 68 genera (of which 92% are endemic, excluding bats), and 148 species (all are endemic, except for bats, with 50% endemics). The relative importance of dispersal versus vicariance as mechanisms behind these patterns has been debated for decades. Of current interest is the validity of the MacPhee and Ituralde-Vinet hypothesis that the Aves Ridge was an important dispersal route from South America to the Greater Antilles for mammals and other …
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