In a guest editorial Cowie & Holland (2006) treat as entirely unproblematic a dispersal model of the Hawaiian Islands (their Fig. 1). They neglect to mention the alternative vicariance model: the long history of a single 'Big Island' (the Hawaiian Ridge) that through volcanism grows toward the south-east and that disintegrates toward the north-west through erosion, subsidence and submarine slumping and landsliding. Their figure implies dispersal from older to younger islands in accordance with the 'progression rule' (of Hennig; Platnick, 1981). This imaginary dispersal is an unnecessary 'explanation' if biota, by colonizing younger lava flows and coalescing volcanoes, maintain themselves on the growing part of the ridge.
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