ABSTRACT
Earth history is traditionally the domain of geologists and various paleo-disciplines (paleontology, paleoecology, paleoclimatology, paleobotany, etc.). However, the history of biology is sprinkled with research on the connections between present-day biogeography and ecology on one hand and earth history on the other. Such research may divided into three broad catego ries. First, there is application of data derived from life fonus of the present to questions of earth history. For example, the use of phylogenetic trees in combi nation with distributional data can provide insights into the history of land-area relationships, as done in the field of vicariance biogeography (Wiley 1988). We may be able to claim that earthworms were of some importance in the early development of plate tectonic theory, and therefore of vicariance biogeography, since the former has been very important to the ascendance of the latter. The Oligochaete systematist Michaelsen named an earthworm genus after Wegener in honor of Wegener’s work toward an understanding of the distributions of earthworms (Michaelsen 1933). It is possible that the two men (office neighbors at the University of Hamburg) discussed earthworm distributions, providing Wegener more evidence for his then-radical theory. Many other groups of or ganisms have been used in arguments supporting or refuting various hypotheses about events of the past (Wiley 1988; Humphries and Parenti 1986; Rosen 1985; Liebherr 1988).
