RE: NANFA-- exotic species impact

Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus-in-hotmail.com)
Fri, 28 May 2004 10:26:38 -0400

Western North America had a small diversity of freshwater fishes for
apparently a list of physical and biogeographic reasons. The Rockies have
been rising for the last 25 million years or so, which has separated
watersheds for a period of time. Before that, much of the upper midwest and
current Rockies states were a shallow inland sea that slowly dried up, so
that blocked dispersal by the eastern freshwater species. And obviously much
of the Southwest is now arid or desert, with few modern rivers although that
has been a slow, long-term trend. Apparently the historical reservoir of
freshwater fishes in North America has been the Ohio River/Tennessee River
area.

God, I think I just condensed an entire book into one paragraph...

--Bruce Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL, US of A

>From: Irate Mormon <archimedes-in-bayspringstel.net>
>Reply-To: nanfa-in-aquaria.net
>To: "nanfa-in-aquaria.net" <nanfa-in-aquaria.net>
>Subject: RE: NANFA-- exotic species impact
>Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 22:28:02 -0400
>
>Quoting Bruce Stallsmith <fundulus-in-hotmail.com>:
>
> > state of California where the original (short) list of natives has been
>
><snip>
>
>Bruce, or others, why does Californ-eye-ay have a short list compared to,
>say,
>Alabamee?
>
>--Irate
> Charter member, DNRC
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