Biogeography aims to explain distributions of organisms through historical and ecological factors. This course will focus on the history of biogeographic research, developments in the area of historical biogeography, and on ecological processes that affect distributions of whole clades. Topics include plate tectonics and earth history, vicariance and dispersal, areas of endemism, phylogenetic niche conservatism, latitudinal gradients in species richness, and the theory of island biogeography. Software for biogeographical analysis will be discussed and evaluated.