439: Biodiversity in Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats -- Helgen et al. 308 (5719): 199b -- Science

Biodiversity in Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats -- Helgen et al. 308 (5719): 199b -- Science:

We read with interest the Report "Local endemism within the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot" by F. Bossuyt et al. (15 Oct. 2004, p. 479), which documents patterns of diversification in selected vertebrate and invertebrate lineages from Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats region of western India. Although these two areas have long been united as a single biogeographic unit (1), and more recently as a biodiversity "hotspot" (2), Bossuyt et al. highlight the distinctive faunal histories of the two regions and caution against treating them as a single unit for conservation purposes.

A hierarchal pattern of biogeography? Almost as if historical events had driven some sort of process, a process involving descent and modification. What name should we give this? Evolution? Yes, let's.