The history of continental drift with respect to living things can be traced back to the breakup of a giant landmass, Pangea, over some 200 million years. Pangea began to form about 300 million years ago, during the late Carboniferous period, as all of Earth’s landmasses moved slowly toward each other. By the late Permian, roughly 255 million years ago, the landmasses were joined together, forming a compact supercontinent that comprised the major terrestrial habitat of the time. Starting about 237 million years ago, the landmass fragmented, and its components drifted slowly apart.

By the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago, Pangea had separated into northern (Laurasia) and southern (Gondwana) landmasses. Laurasia comprised what later became North America and Eurasia (Europe and Asia), except for India. Gondwana consisted of all of the other land. Antarctica, India, and Australia began to shift away from Gondwana in the middle of the Jurassic period. By the late Cretaceous period, about 94 million years ago, Gondwana had separated into South America and Africa, but Australia and Antarctica remained connected to each other. India was joined to Madagascar. North America and Eurasia, which had begun drifting apart during the Jurassic, were still joined at the site of the present Bering Strait.

During the Paleogene period, about 66 million to 23 million years ago), the continental landmasses drifted to their present locations. South America became connected by Central America to North America. India separated from Madagascar, migrated northward, and crashed into Asia, an event that formed the Himalayas. The Antarctica-Australia landmass split apart: Antarctica moved toward the South Pole, and Australia moved toward the Equator. (See also Earth; plate tectonics.)

Understanding the patterns of continental drift has greatly increased scientists’ understanding of the modern distribution patterns of living things. Although the geologic changes occurred over about a 200-million-year time frame, some organisms show little evidence of evolutionary change. For example, side-necked turtles (suborder Pleurodira) have changed little since the Jurassic period. Scientists presume they dispersed throughout Gondwana before it broke apart. Today the turtles are found in parts of South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australia, and islands of the Indian Ocean—but in no other parts of the world.

Groups such as the mammals evolved more rapidly in the last 100 million years. Because of this, land areas isolated from each other through the separation of continents may have widely different forms of mammals. For example, themarsupials of Australia are distinct from the mammals of other continents. This is because the Australian marsupials evolved under different conditions than other marsupials after Australia separated from the other continents.

Although the present distribution of organisms depends on their ancestral distribution and evolution over geologic time, environmental factors have also played a role. The most apparent general environmental factor affecting the distribution of a species is climate. Suitable conditions of temperature and moisture are vital to all organisms.

Certain species are intolerant of cold; other species cannot live in warm climates. Some have evolved to withstand extreme drought; others are adapted to excessively wet conditions. Temperature, rainfall, and other environmental factors such as soil type and day length determine if a species can survive in a region.

The major recognizable life zones of the continents are called biomes. Because vegetation is usually the dominant and most apparent feature of the landscape, a biome is characterized by its plant community.

Biomes represent the large-scale general patterns of species distribution and do not include regional variations. At least six major terrestrial biomes are generally recognized (plus the marine and freshwater biomes): tundra, taiga, temperate deciduous forest, tropical rainforest, grassland and savanna, and desert. Most of these biomes are subdivided in several ways as a result of regional variability. Each is characterized by organisms that are adapted to the climatic conditions and environment of the biome.

The coldest of the six major biomes, and one of the driest, is the tundra of the Arctic regions. Tundra covers much of the land between the North Pole and the taiga, in some places farther south than latitude 60° N. It is so cold that a layer of permanently frozen soil, called permafrost, lies under the rocky topsoil. Although the tundra receives little precipitation, bogs and ponds often form, because little evaporation and drainage take place.

The number of species in the tundra is low compared to other biomes. Life abounds during the warmer months, but only species specially adapted to the long frozen winters can survive year-round.In the winter most of the organisms become dormant or migrate to warmer regions. Lichens, mosses, and grasses are the dominant ground cover, but some flowering plants are abundant during the short, cool summers. There are some low and dwarf shrubs but no trees. Animals include wolves, foxes, reindeer (caribou), voles, squirrels, and hares, as well as birds, insects, and fish. Amphibians and reptiles are rare.

The taiga, or boreal forest, covers a broad region of cold, but not permanently frozen, land south of the tundra. It extends in a belt across North America, Europe, and Asia between the latitudes 60° N and 50° N. The taiga is warmer than the tundra and also receives more precipitation, mostly in summer. The winters are long and cold, while the summers are short and cool to moderately warm.

Species diversity is higher than in the tundra but lower than in warmer biomes. Evergreen conifers—needle-leaved shrubs and trees such as pines, firs, andspruces—dominate the landscape. Some areas have hardwoods, such as birch and aspen, that are deciduous, meaning that they lose and regrow their leaves seasonally. Many areas of the taiga have dense stands of a few species of tree. As a result of their thick growth, little light reaches the lower levels of the forest and fewer plants grow there. Boreal fauna include bears, moose, wolves, lynx, reindeer, shrews, snowshoe hares, and rodents. Migratory birds are plentiful in the summer, when insects also are abundant.

In some of the milder climates of the Northern Hemisphere, temperate deciduous forests grow. They are found mainly in the temperate regions of eastern North America, western and central Europe, and eastern Asia. (Deciduous forests are distinct from the coastal forests of western North America and Chile, where milder temperatures and higher precipitation support different patterns of growth and diversity.) Humans have cleared much of the area that the forests originally covered. The winters vary from cold to mild, but the warm growing season is several months long, and rainfall is generally high.

The species diversity is also high. Temperate forests are dominated by hardwood broad-leaved trees, most of which lose their leaves each fall and grow new ones each spring. Oaks, beeches, hickories, and maples are common. Sufficient light reaches the forest floor to support the growth of many species of shrubs, herbs, and mosses. Flowering plants are abundant in the spring. Animals include squirrels, rabbits, deer, foxes, wolves, bears, and many other mammals; many kinds of birds, such as owls, pigeons, and migrating songbirds; and some reptiles and amphibians.

Lush with broad-leaved evergreen trees and diverse plant and animal life, tropical rainforests are situated in the wet, warm areas near the Equator. Rainforests occupy parts of northern South America, Central America, equatorial Africa, India and Southeast Asia, and northeastern Australia.

Tropical rainforests receive the most rainfall of any terrestrial biome and have warm temperatures year-round. The trees often form a dense canopy, or upper layer, sometimes resulting in daytime semidarkness at ground level. Many animals live in the canopy and rarely leave. Epiphytes, or air plants, live on tree trunks or branches and never touch the ground during their life cycle. Among them are numerous species of orchids, ferns, and bromeliads. Lianas (woody vines) almost completely cover many of the trees.

Species numbers and interactions among species in tropical rainforests surpass those of any other terrestrial environment. Many species found in rainforests are not found anyplace else on Earth. Among these are mammals such as gorillas, orangutans, and most monkeys; birds such as toucans and many parrots; numerous species of reptiles and of frogs and other amphibians; countless species of insects; and countless plants, including trees such as mahogany and teak. Sadly, large tracts of rainforest are being lost as land is cleared for human activities such as logging and agriculture.

In temperate or tropical regions where precipitation is sparse or erratic, grasses are the dominant plants. Trees and shrubs are rare or absent in temperategrasslands, which cover large tracts of central North America, central and eastern Asia, eastern Europe, southern Africa, and southern South America. These grasslands have dry, warm to hot summers and damp, cold winters. Prairies, steppes, and pampas are all types of temperate grasslands.

Tropical grasslands, or savannas, have scattered drought-resistant trees. Savannas are found in northern Australia, southern India, part of Southeast Asia, northern South America, and more than half of sub-Saharan Africa. Savannas are warm year-round, with distinct wet and dry seasons.

Both savannas and grasslands exist as vast plains that accommodate grasses plus a limited number of other vascular plants. Characteristic animals include small burrowing mammals, large grazing mammals, and the mammals that prey on them. Animals range from the lions, hyenas, baboons, zebras, gazelles, giraffes, warthogs, vultures, and ostriches of Africa’s Serengeti Plains, to the coyotes, skunks, badgers, and songbirds of North America’s prairies.

Many people associate deserts with intense heat, but these biomes actually are characterized by their extreme dryness. Deserts typically receive less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain annually. The vegetation is normally very sparse, and both plants and animals are specially adapted to withstand low moisture levels.

Deserts are found on every continent. Hot deserts, where it can be extremely hot during the day but cool at night, are found near the latitudes 30° N and 30° S. The Sahara in northern Africa is the world’s largest hot desert. Other hot deserts include the Kalahari in southern Africa and those in the southwestern United States and in the outback of Australia. Plants and animals are adapted to the harsh environment in many ways. Plants such as cacti and some euphorbias store moisture in their stems and have needlelike leaves that limit water loss. Some plants complete their entire life cycle within just a few weeks after a rain. The kidneys of some desert mammals, such as rodents, are uniquely adapted to retaining water. Many animals are active at night, thereby avoiding the daytime heat.

Temperate, or cold, deserts lie at higher latitudes. Sometimes much of Antarctica is considered a desert. Aside from this, other large cold deserts include the Taklimakan in northwestern China, the Gobi in Mongolia, the Great Basin in the western United States, and the Atacama Desert in Chile. Cold deserts have cold winters but may have fairly warm summers. Scattered small bush vegetation is common.

Animals in the various deserts include many lizards and snakes, plus burrowing rodents such as gerbils, mice, and gophers. There are also jackrabbits, gazelles, coyotes, foxes, owls, vultures, and hawks.

Prehistoric distribution, evolutionary history, and climate are prevalent factors influencing the modern distribution patterns of living things. A variety of other factors also affect regional distribution of species. These factors differ greatly in their impact, depending upon the timing of events and the biology of the species involved.

Sometimes environmental barriers can influence the distribution of species by making a region inaccessible to a particular group. For instance, a high mountain range may prevent the migration of ground-dwelling species between two areas. Open ocean is an obvious and significant environmental barrier between landmasses. Biomes themselves can even serve as environmental barriers, one of the most famous being the Sahara, which ecologically separates central from northern Africa. Biogeographers use ecology, geology, and evolutionary biology to determine the impact of environmental barriers on species distribution.

Biogeographers are also interested in how species colonize new areas. The study of dispersal patterns in living things involves examining their structure, functioning, and behavior. Their degree of mobility and the methods for the dispersal of their eggs or seeds are important in understanding how species overcome environmental barriers and spread to new areas. Plant seeds that are carried by wind, water, or animals can disperse over great distances. For instance, coconut palms are found on most tropical islands because their fruits—coconuts—can float, carrying their seeds to far-flung islands. Many birds and mammals can migrate over long distances to establish new populations.

As populations of living things adapt to new environmental circumstances over geologic time, they may evolveinto new species that are considerably different from their ancestors. Information from the fossil record and from affinities between extant (living) species helps biogeographers speculate about where the extant species or their ancestors lived in the past. Comparison of DNA sequences from separate populations of extant species has become a vital tool for calculating when these species may have evolved.

Competition between species for the same food sources or for the same habitats is significant in the distribution of organisms. Competition is a complex biological phenomenon that many biologists consider to be a key factor in modern biogeographic patterns. A classic example is the case of the many South American marsupials that became extinct between roughly 24 and 15 million years ago. Biologists believe that the South American marsupials could not successfully compete for resources with North American placental mammals, which invaded South America via the Central American land bridge and gradually replaced them.

Today’s distribution patterns are in great part a product of human intervention, whether intentional or accidental. The house sparrow and the common starling, originally species of Eurasia, have become a dominant part of the bird population of the United States and Canada. The European hare, introduced into Australia, has successfully colonized many areas of the continent. The brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis), a native of Papua New Guinea, rendered most of the flightless birds of Guam extinct after being transported accidentally to the island in a ship’s cargo. The South American water hyacinth and the Asian kudzu vine are considered pests in the southeastern United States because of their invasion of the region following human introduction.

These instances represent some of the thousands of human introductions of plants and animals to new regions. Although most species introduced from one continent to another do not fare well and eventually become extinct without human care, some are extremely successful and may replace native forms to the extent of becoming unwanted pests.

Besides the transcontinental introduction of species, transplants to different regions on the same continent are also common. For example, rainbow trout, native to rivers along the northwestern coast of North America, have been successfully established in cold-water streams of the central and eastern United States. Because of its commercial importance since ancient times, the date palm has been distributed throughout North Africa and the Middle East to places, including isolated oases, where it might never have reached without human assistance.

The extinction of many species has resulted from human activities as well. Over the last several hundred years humans have eliminated countless species—some, such as the dodo bird and the passenger pigeon, through hunting and others, such as the Carolina parakeet, by destroying natural habitat. Hundreds of other species including the Chinese alligator, the lowland and mountaingorillas, the black, Sumatran, and Javan rhinoceroses, and the California condor live at the edge of extinction. Although extinction and the gradual replacement of species by others is a natural phenomenon, the rapid and global impact of human activity has greatly accelerated the process; thus evolutionary replacement has not had time to occur. Many changes incurred by the introduction of species to new areas and the relentless extinction of others are irrevocable. (See also endangered species.)

Because islands are small geographic units with distinct boundaries, they serve as useful models to illustrate the mechanisms of biogeographic phenomena. Intensive ecological studies on islands have provided key insights into invasion and colonization patterns, dispersal mechanisms, and extinction rates.

Ecologists have documented that the amount of usable habitat on an island determines how many species can be supported. Mathematical formulas show that islands reach an equilibrium, or balance, when the rate at which immigrating species integrate into the island’s communities equals the rate at which resident species become extinct. These findings have vital implications for the conservation and management of actual islands, as well as mainland “islands”—areas of habitat that are isolated from each other by geographic barriers such as highways or shopping malls built in formerly intact habitat. Such construction presents a tremendous barrier to species such as turtles. (See also population biology.)

Ocean environments have not received the level of attention that terrestrial habitats have from a biogeographic point of view. Environmental barriers in marine systems are seldom as abrupt as in terrestrial systems, so that distinct groups of organisms are not as recognizable. Furthermore, the world’s oceans are continuous, so migration between areas and mixing of species are likelier. Because of these differences, isolation of major groups from each other is less likely to occur in marine habitats.

J. Whitfield Gibbons

Ed.

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