ABSTRACT
Comparative biogeography (Parenti and Ebach, 2009) deals with biotic areas and their historical relationships. Biogeographical distributions are a result of processes acting at different temporal and spatial levels. Some authors de‘ne biogeography as the study of distributions of living organisms, whereas others recognise palaeobiogeography-the study of distributions of fossil taxa-as a different discipline (Patterson, 1981). We, however, agree with Rosen (1992) that neobiogeography and palaeobiogeography should be classi‘ed as parts of a common biogeographical aim rather than as separate ‘elds with different goals. Palaeobiogeography explicitly includes time, whereas neobiogeography, a palaeontological term, does not integrate temporal data (sensu Upchurch and Hunn, 2002) or focuses on recent ecological factors or observable processes (i.e., ecological biogeography). The distinction between
1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................1 1.1.1 Terminological Digression ....................................................................2
