Heads Michael, Craw Robin
Science Faculty, University of Goroka, PO Box 1078, Goroka, Papua New Guinea.
Otago Musuem, PO Box 6202, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Cladistics. 2004 Apr;20(2):184-190. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2004.00009.x.
The New Zealand Alpine Fault is a major tectonic feature located on the mutual boundary of the Australian and Pacific Plates which is hypothesized to have undergone some 470 km of right-lateral displacement. The Nelson and Westland provinces have moved north-east relative to the rest of the South Island. Many plant and animal taxa show a conspicuous distribution gap in the central South Island, and traditionally this has been explained by glacial extirpation of the central populations. However, the gap is usually filled by a closely related taxon. Furthermore, the taxa involved occupy a wide ecological range, and include intertidal algae, shorefishes, lowland trees, and alpine herbs and insects that thrive around glaciers. The Alpine Fault biogeographic hypothesis [Heads, M., 1998a. Biogeographic disjunction along the Alpine Fault, New Zealand. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 63, 161-176; Heads, M., 1998b.Coprosma decurva (Rubiaceae), a new species from New Zealand. NZ J. Bot. 36, 65-69.], based on track and phylogenetic analyses, proposes that the disjunction has instead been caused by movement on the fault pulling apart plant and animal populations. Wallis and Trewick (2001) [Wallis, G.P., Trewick, S.A., 2001. Finding fault with vicariance: a critique of Heads (1998). Syst. Biol. 50, 602-609.] provided a critique of this idea and pointed out what they felt were nine problems with it. These problems are answered here and shown to result from Wallis and Trewick's misunderstanding of aspects of geology and biology involved in the hypothesis. In particular, they have confused the age of inception of the fault with the age of movement along it, and, by neglecting the related central taxa in the "gap", have assumed the biogeographic hypothesis to be an uninformative two-area statement, whereas in fact it is an informative three- or four-area statement.
新西兰阿尔卑斯断层是位于澳大利亚板块和太平洋板块相互边界上的一个主要构造特征，据推测该断层经历了约470千米的右旋位移。尼尔森省和西兰省相对于南岛的其他地区向东北方向移动。许多动植物分类群在南岛中部呈现出明显的分布间断，传统上这被解释为中部种群遭受冰川灭绝。然而，这个间断通常由一个密切相关的分类群填补。此外，所涉及的分类群占据广泛的生态范围，包括潮间带藻类、沿岸鱼类、低地树木以及在冰川周围繁盛的高山草本植物和昆虫。基于轨迹和系统发育分析的阿尔卑斯断层生物地理学假说[黑兹，M.，1998a。新西兰沿阿尔卑斯断层的生物地理间断。《林奈学会生物学杂志》63，161 - 176；黑兹，M.，1998b。弯叶柯普罗斯玛（茜草科），一种来自新西兰的新物种。《新西兰植物学杂志》36，65 - 69。]提出，这种间断反而由断层运动导致动植物种群分离所致。沃利斯和特里维克（2001年）[沃利斯，G.P.，特里维克，S.A.，2001。对间断分布的质疑：对黑兹（1998年）观点的批判。《系统生物学》50，602 - 609。]对这一观点进行了批判，并指出了他们认为的九个问题。在此对这些问题进行解答，并表明它们源于沃利斯和特里维克对该假说所涉及的地质和生物学方面的误解。特别是，他们将断层开始形成的时间与沿断层运动的时间混淆了，并且通过忽略“间断”中的相关中部分类群，假定生物地理学假说为一种无信息的两区陈述，而实际上它是一种有信息的三区或四区陈述。
