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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

drainage history, aquatic, alluvial sediments

College

Life Sciences

Department

Plant and Wildlife Sciences

Abstract

Although the drainage history of intermountain western North America has been studied extensively, traditional geological and paleontological approaches have slowed in deciphering that history because most Miocene and Pliocene evidence is buried by Pleistocene and other recent alluvial sediments. To fill this void, phylogeography has emerged as a novel approach to the study of drainage history. By using genetic analysis to examine the evolutionary relationships among various populations of a given species, especially an aquatic organism, researchers can construct genetic-based distribution patterns that ostensibly reflect historic inter-basin connections. This approach can potentially fill in some of the gaps left by other methods and can also help geologists focus their investigations in areas most likely to have been important dispersal pathways.

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