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The article of the century, from Mike Wise!

Tom C

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Mike Wise

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My last article? Oh God, I hope not ("I'm not dead yet!" - Monty Python & the Holy Grail)

Article of the century? A bit of hyperbole maybe?:)

Anyway, I hope it intrigues people - and I'd like some feed back (positive and especially negative).
 

gerald

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Fantastic work Mike! Just glanced through the maps; hope to read more this weekend.
I love biogeography, especially when its written for normal people to appreciate.
Have you found anything similar (paleo-geographic sequence of river maps) for North America?

Gerald
 

Tom C

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My last article? Oh God, I hope not ("I'm not dead yet!" - Monty Python & the Holy Grail)
......
Haha, I'm sorry Mike! :redface::eek: Mistakes like this happens when a foreigner's brain is not in "English mode", and just translate a word from Norwegian to English.....
I've changed my post..... ("very latest" is better, I hope?)
 

Mike Wise

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I love biogeography, especially when its written for normal people to appreciate.

Me too. Some of my most favorite geology courses were on historical geology and biostratigraphy (= 4 dimensional biogeography: normal 3 dimensional biogeography + changes over time).

Have you found anything similar (paleo-geographic sequence of river maps) for North America?

I really haven't looked lately. Most of my North American studies (including my MSc thesis) were from the early Paleozoic Era. Pleistocene glaciation made radical changes in more recent (Cenozoic) biogeography in much of the Northern Hemisphere.
 

gerald

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So Pleistocene glaciation hadn't yet happened back when you were in school Mike? |;>)

I really haven't looked lately. Most of my North American studies (including my MSc thesis) were from the early Paleozoic Era. Pleistocene glaciation made radical changes in more recent (Cenozoic) biogeography in much of the Northern Hemisphere.

NC has some interesting biogeographic puzzles: several fish & other aquatic animals derived from Ohio River relatives that extend onto the Atlantic slope only in the Neuse & Tar Rivers (Neuse waterdog, Carolina madtom, Pinewoods shiner & others) And there's the greenhead/ yellowfin/ redlip shiner complex in the PeeDee, Santee, and Savannah river basins in western NC/SC. The rivers must have done some funny things over the years.
 

Mike Wise

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wow its unbelievable the amount of recherche and time you put into this mike ! what do you do for a living?

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've been doing research on this for over a decade. The first attempt can be seen in an article in the ACA's Buntbarsche Bulletin back then. I didn't like it even then. Now that there is more information about the geology of South America (thanks to petroleum exploration - a double-edged sword for us fish lovers) I think this article is more accurate by a long shot. I still have some problems, but that means I'll have something to think about in the future!

What do/did I do for a living? Well, I guess I can be thought of as "retired" now; certainly old enough. In the past I have been a junior college professor, minerals expoloration geologist, environmental remediation engineer (RICRA (chemical toxins) & nuclear).
 

Mike Wise

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So Pleistocene glaciation hadn't yet happened back when you were in school Mike? |;>)

That's me - old and a slow learner! I started school during the 2nd interglacial and didn't graduate until the start of the Holocene.:biggrin:

NC has some interesting biogeographic puzzles: several fish & other aquatic animals derived from Ohio River relatives that extend onto the Atlantic slope only in the Neuse & Tar Rivers (Neuse waterdog, Carolina madtom, Pinewoods shiner & others) And there's the greenhead/ yellowfin/ redlip shiner complex in the PeeDee, Santee, and Savannah river basins in western NC/SC. The rivers must have done some funny things over the years.

The continental glaciers created many oddities. Much of it is geologic in nature. One that I always found fascinating was that some plant genera that originally were seen in both North America and Europe are no longer found in Europe. It seems that, in North America, they could move south with the climate change. In Europe they could not. In North America the mountain ranges run north-south, but in Europe the mountain ranges run more east-west. Apparently many plant genera migrated south along the flanks of the mountains in North America, but couldn't cross the mountains in Europe. Trapped between continental glaciers and mountain glaciers all they could do is - die out.
 

HaakonH

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This is a brilliant piece of work! I'm amazed by the amounts of information you have room for in your head, and I'm really glad guys like you and Tom take your time to share it with us all.

The two species of the diplotaenia-group you refer to, are these the Rio Negro and Orinoco forms?

I know A.diplotaenia exists in blue and red forms, as well as the strange pale red/orange form depicted at http://www.rva.jp/zukan/apisto/ap_diplotaenia_novoiron.html. Are these varieties from different locations, or can all varieties be found at one site?

Haakon
 

Mike Wise

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There are actually 2 different forms/species - not just color morphs. For the most part, I ignore color as a diagnostic feature. There is the holotype form, which probably includes the Novo Iron population. Then there is the form from the Río Venturari, Venezuela which shows dark vertical abdominal stripes extending down from the lower lateral band.
 

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