Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The division of a widespread group of organisms by a geographic barrier, such as a mountain range or a body of water, often resulting in the evolution of related species on either side of the barrier.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biology The separation of a group of organisms by a geographic barrier, resulting in differentiation of the original group into new varieties or species
  • noun geology The geological event which produces such a barrier (volcano, earthquake, etc)
  • noun psychology, colloquial The act of experiencing an event by proxy through an empathic link with the person who is experiencing the event firsthand.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin vicārius, substitute (since after a vicariant speciation event, one species can be thought of as “substituting for” a related species on the other side of the geographic barrier); see vicarious + –ance.]

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Examples

  • View two – the vicariance model – proposes that mekosuchines may have been present on New Caledonia, Fiji and elsewhere prior to their separation of these land masses from the Australian plate.

    The small, recently extinct, island-dwelling crocodilians of the south Pacific Darren Naish 2006

  • View two – the vicariance model – proposes that mekosuchines may have been present on New Caledonia, Fiji and elsewhere prior to their separation of these land masses from the Australian plate.

    Archive 2006-09-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • So whether mekosuchines owe their distribution to dispersal or vicariance, we can be quite confident that they inhabited islands in the south-west Pacific where their presence has yet to confirmed.

    The small, recently extinct, island-dwelling crocodilians of the south Pacific Darren Naish 2006

  • The antiquity of the divergences within Agamidae has proved controversial, with some authors arguing that the major clades diverged as a consequence of Gondwanan vicariance (Macey et al. 2000).

    Archive 2006-12-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • So whether mekosuchines owe their distribution to dispersal or vicariance, we can be quite confident that they inhabited islands in the south-west Pacific where their presence has yet to confirmed.

    Archive 2006-09-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • If vicariance was the major control on mekosuchine distribution in the south-west Pacific, then mekosuchines ‘might be expected to be found on other islands in the New Zealand-New Caledonia-Fiji-Solomons region, but not as far east as Tonga or Samoa’ (Molnar et al. 2002, p. 626).

    The small, recently extinct, island-dwelling crocodilians of the south Pacific Darren Naish 2006

  • Another interesting biological phenomenon in this ecoregion is vicariance, due to the polar distribution between the west and east of the country.

    Cuban moist forests 2008

  • Another phenomenon of biological interest in this ecoregion is vicariance, due to the polar distribution between the west and east of the country.

    Cuban pine forests 2008

  • These forests have many taxons that show a geographic vicariance with the pine trees in the western part of the country.

    Cuban pine forests 2008

  • If vicariance was the major control on mekosuchine distribution in the south-west Pacific, then mekosuchines ‘might be expected to be found on other islands in the New Zealand-New Caledonia-Fiji-Solomons region, but not as far east as Tonga or Samoa’ (Molnar et al. 2002, p. 626).

    Archive 2006-09-01 Darren Naish 2006

Comments

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  • Ma Nature conducts such a merry dance

    Ingeniously fostering variance,

    With tectonic drift

    And mountains’ uplift

    Deployed in the cause of vicariance.

    May 18, 2018