Once continental drift became accepted, it was seen by many as the key to explaining global patterns of plant distribution, and many workers downplayed the possibility of dispersal over wide expanses of ocean. However, dated phylogenies show that such long-distance dispersal has been frequent, and we have demonstrated it in the legumes Lathyrus and Andira, Streptocarpus, Begonia, the ginger Renealmia, and the gentian Exacum. We have also contributed to an important study that demonstrates long-distance dispersal to have been the major force in shaping the global distribution of the legume family, which dominates the tropical rain forests, dry forests and woody savannas of Africa and the Neotropics.
Recent publications
Kenicer, G., Kajita, T., Pennington, R.T. & Murata, J. (2005). Systematics and biogeography of Lathyrus based upon internal transcribed spacer and cpDNA sequence data. American Journal of Botany 92: 1199-1209.
Lavin, M., Schrire, B., Lewis, G., Pennington, R.T., Delgado-Salinas, A., Thulin, M., Hughes, C. & Wojciechowski, M.F. (2004). Metacommunity process rather than continental tectonic history better explains geographically structured phylogenies in legumes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (Biological Sciences) 359: 1509-1522.
Särkinen, T.E., Newman, M.F., Maas, P.J.M., Maas, H., Poulsen, A.D., Harris, D.J., Richardson, J.E., Clark, A., Hollingsworth, M. & Pennington, R.T. (2007. in press). Recent oceanic long-distance dispersal and divergence in the amphi-Atlantic rain forest genus Renealmia L.f. (Zingiberaceae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
Yuan, Y.-M., Wohlhauser, S., Möller, M, Klackenberg, J. & Küpfer, P. (2005). Phylogeny and biogeography of Exacum (Gentianaceae): a disjunctive distribution in the Indian Ocean Basin resulted from long distance dispersal and rapid radiation. Systematic Biology 54(1):1-14.