My Year of Darwin 5/23/2014: Darwin the biogeographer

 

"We shall hereafter see this law of aquatic forms, whether marine or fresh water, being less peculiar at any given point of the earth's surface than the terrestrial forms of the same classes, strikingly illustrated in the shells, and in a lesser degree in the insects of this archipelago."  Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle

What Darwin is saying is that aquatic organisms are wide-ranging, such that one finds a marine species over the coastline of an entire continent. Terrestrial organisms, however, are more peculiar- those species are found in a particular valley or land formation. 

Darwin is known by many things to many people. Until now, Darwin is mostly a geologist, to a lesser extent a sociologist (although a good sociologist might scoff at that assertion) and to a lesser extent an ecologist. And now we can add a biogeographer to the list. 
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Was scheduled to go in the field today but only two people want to go out and it may just rain. May go see Godzilla at 1.