Quantitative Cladistic Biogeography: Constructing and Comparing Area Cladograms

This paper describes methods for constructing and comparing area cladograms. Three different interpretations (Assumptions 0, 1 and 2) of widespread taxa and redundant distributions are outlined. Algorithms for Assumptions 1 and 2 are presented, and a measure of relative parsimony for area cladograms is discussed. By using quantitative measures of the similarity between two or more area cladograms it is possible to test statistically hypotheses of biogeographic congruence. The algorithms described in this paper have been implemented in a computer program available from the author. Rosen's (1978, 1979) and Cracraft's (1986) data are reanalyzed using this software.