Competitive exclusion: phylogeography’s ‘elephant in the room’?

Phylogeographic and evolutionary research programmes have successfully elucidated compelling genetic signatures of earth history. Particularly influential achievements include the demonstration of postglacial recolonization patterns for high-latitude taxa and phylogenetic demonstration of the ‘progression rule’ along oceanic island chains such as Hawaii. While both of these major biogeographic patterns clearly rely on rapid dispersal over long...