Frontiers of Biogeography

Models of biogeographic processes can both enhance and inhibit our ability to ask questions that guide our understanding of patterns and processes. The two ‘traditional’ models of island biogeography, the Equilibrium Model and the Vicariance Model, raise important and insightful questions about relevant processes, but both fail to raise many crucial questions. An example involving the non-volant mammals of the Philippine archipelago shows that both models highlight some, but not all, relevant patterns and processes. The more recently proposed General Dynamic Model successfully combines many of the positive aspects of the two traditional models, but leaves some important questions unasked. We pose a number of questions here that may help guide further development of models of island biogeography.