On the role of biogeography in the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint. You must log in to post a comment. There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article. This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint. Add a Comment You must log in to post a comment. Comments There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article. In the first half of the 20th century, the Modern Synthesis (MS) integrated Mendelian genetics, paleontology, systematics, natural history, common descent, and natural selection. Although the MS has been the guiding paradigm of evolutionary studies since 1950, by the beginning of the 21st century, a new synthesis incorporated themes such as evo-devo, phenotypic plasticity, and epigenetic inheritance. This research program, known as the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES), emphasizes processes and mechanisms rather than pattern analysis, and the relevance of the spatial or geographic component for the origin and diversification of organisms is virtually absent. As Croizat argued in 1964, evolution means change over time and space. Thus, an EES encompassing an integrated view of the historical process of evolution should include biogeography. Here, we explore the role of biogeography in the EES. Our proposal is based on an integrative, pluralistic approach to biogeography that combines theories, models, methods, and data-collection techniques to best explain the complex phenomenon of life evolving in space and time. In this context, given biogeographical reciprocal illumination, we reinforce the importance of biogeographical consilience as an evaluation criterion for biogeographic hypotheses. https://doi.org/10.32942/X2PD5V Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences consilience, Croizat, evolution, pattern analysis, reciprocal illumination Published: 2026-04-01 18:55 Last Updated: 2026-04-01 18:55 CC BY Attribution 4.0 International Conflict of interest statement: None Data and Code Availability Statement: Not applicable Language: English