Composition of the Rodent Faunas of Different Desert Regions

Abstract

Patterns of species distribution are key factors in all biogeographic analyses, including biogeographic classification and regionalization (Myers and Giller 1988). Indeed, the concept of biogeographic regions, one of the oldest concepts in biogeography (Nelson and Platnick 1981), is based mainly on patterns of species distribution. This concept now incorporates other concepts including the consideration of a province as a response to both ecological or historical processes (Rosen 1988). Nevertheless, different aspects of biogeographic regionalization have been severely criticized (see review in Hengeveld 1992). One of the main points of criticism is the problem of choice of taxa for regionalization, because regionalization results may differ depending on the taxonomic group selected. Comparison of schemes of regionalization based on different taxa is beyond the scope of this book. Our sole aim has been to denote the regions with relatively homogeneous rodent faunas (provinces) for subsequent comparisons between them.