Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!shelby!portia!hanauma!joe
From: joe@hanauma.stanford.edu (Joe Dellinger)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Ecosystemic Contamination
Message-ID: <5715@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 10 Oct 89 05:32:47 GMT
References: <8909272147.AA01656@aristotle.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> <2035@frog.UUCP> <5661@portia.Stanford.EDU> <767.25311054@csc.anu.oz>
Sender: USENET News System <news@Portia.stanford.edu>
Reply-To: joe@hanauma.stanford.edu (Joe Dellinger)
Organization: Stanford University, Dept. of Geophysics
Lines: 23

In article <767.25311054@csc.anu.oz> dxb105@csc.anu.oz (David Bofinger, Theoretical Physics, RSPhysS ANU) writes:
>
>I think the point was that South America was isolated. North America had a
>(tenuous) link to the _real_ powerhouse of terrestrial evolution- Afro-Eurasia.
>It wasn't North American mammals that colonised South America: it was Asian
>ones, via the Bering strait.
>
>David Bofinger	ACSNet:	dxb105@phys0.anu.oz [@munnari.oz.au] (Australia)

Guess you caught me there. Hope you're enjoying our Texan prickly-pear cactus!

I think my point still stands, though (even though I admit it's more the
exception than the rule). If North America wasn't so isolated, then how
about:
1) Brazilian Water Hyacinths (taking over everywhere with a decent climate)
2) @#*$*^&@# British House Sparrows (far and away most common bird in almost
	all of North America, all descended from a handful released by
	some idiot.)
3) Grasses in California (the "golden hills" of California are caused by
	introduced grasses. I'm not sure where they came from.)
\    /\    /\    /\/\/\/\/\/\/\.-.-.-.-.......___________
 \  /  \  /  \  /Dept of Geophysics, Stanford University \/\/\.-.-....___
  \/    \/    \/Joe Dellinger joe@hanauma.stanford.edu  apple!hanauma!joe\/\.-._