UC Irvine

Last year marked the 10th anniversary of the birth of phylogeography as a formal discipline. However, the field's gestation began in the mid-1970s with the introduction of mitochondrial (mt) DNA analyses to population genetics, and to the profound shift toward genealogical thought at the intraspecific level (now formalized as coalescent theory) that these methods prompted. This paper traces the early history and explosive growth of phylogeography, and closes with predictions about future challenges for the field that centre on several facets of genealogical concordance.