What is biogeography, and how does it support the theory of evolution?

Question

What is biogeography, and how does it support the theory of evolution?

Answer 1

Biogeography is the geographic location and distribution of living organisms.

It supports evolution in many ways because organisms are not distributed evenly throughout the world, but related organisms are found in the same isolated parts of the world ... and this is not explained by climate.

For example, evolution explains why are polar bears found only in the arctic regions and not the antarctic, while all the many species of penguins are found only in the antarctic and not the arctic, despite these being similar climates.

Or it explains why, of the 24 families of marsupials, 22 are found only in Australia, and at the same time, there are almost no indigenous placental mammals in Australia.

Or the fact that there are no apes found native to the Americas (North, South, or Central America ... what we commonly call the "New World").

In fact, there is a dramatic difference in the features between the New World Primates (the monkeys of Central and South America ... there are no indigenous primates in North America) and the Old World Primates (the apes, and the monkeys of Africa and Asia).  

* Old World Primates have opposable thumbs, 3-color vision (almost unique among mammals), no prehensile tail, 8 premolar teeth, and other distinguishing characteristics.

* New World Primates have no opposable thumbs, 2-color vision, a prehensile tail, 12 premolar teeth, and other distinguishing characteristics.

That this package of otherwise unrelated features (e.g. teeth patterns have nothing to do with color vision or the muscles in the tail) should align perfectly with all the species of primates depending on which side of the Atlantic they are found, is beautifully explained by evolution, and the features that developed *after* continental drift permanently separated the earliest primates into the African and South American continents.

Answer 2

Biogeography is the study of the physical distribution of plants and animals. It really doesn't have anything directly to do with evolution, although allopatric speciation relies on populations being physically separated (biogeography).