摘要篇首： The study of biogeography has benefited from the exponential increase of DNA sequence data from recent molecular systematic studies, the development of analytical methods in the last decade concerning divergence time estimation and geographic area analyses, and the availability of large-scale distribution data of species in many groups of organisms. The underlying principle of divergence time estimation from DNA and protein data is that sequence divergence depends on the product of evolutionary rate and time. With their molecular clock hypothesis, Zuckerkandl and Pauling (1965) separated rates of molecular evolution from time by incorporating fossil evidence. Originally, a constant rate of sequence evolution was assumed, but soon it became evident that many data sets do not obey the constant rate assumption of a strict molecular clock.