The first sentence in the Origin of Species is:
"When on board H.M.S. 'Beagle,' as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of organic beings inhabiting South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent."
| Clearly, the distribution of living things played an important role in the development of the idea of evolution. In the 19th centurt biologists such as Darwin, Wallace, and Slater divided the earth up into biogeographic regions. That biogographic regions exist at all is a puzzle if organisms are specially created for particular environments. | |
For example, the seabirds of the northern and southern hemispheres occupy similar niches, and even look siimilar, but belong to very different taxonomic groups.
| Northern hemisphere |   |
| Southern hemisphere |   |