ABSTRACT
Several methods were devised by different authors during the 1970s and 1980s to generate historical explanations of the distributions of related taxa in different areas. These methods are mostly based on cladistic techniques of phylogenetic analysis applied here to the study of the relations between taxa and areas. The description of the various techniques is beyond the scope of this book: they are briefly summarized, focusing on the applications to palaeobiogeography of marine invertebrates. According to Wiley (1988), these techniques may be grouped into three main categories:
