The Neotropical-African Moss Disjunction

Abstract

The neotropical flora shares with Africa about 334 specific and infraspecific moss taxa. Their disjunct range may be explained by an ancient land connection or by long-distance dispersal. Certain species may represent lineages whose taxonomic identity has been preserved for millions of years, but in species with rapid evolutionary rates the long-distance dispersal hypothesis is favored. An alternate explanation for the neotropics proposes secondary centers of dispersalfrom an ancestral continuous distribution in western Gondwanaland. Other hypotheses are inadequate because they concern themselves with few species or with portions of the general range.