Parascript, Parasites and Historical Biogeography

Abstract

ing s anticipated insight continental drift and plate tectonics would become part of the core of recent parascript studies [ ].Klassen [ ] and "rooks [ , ] concluded that the history of the impact of parasite studies in evolutionary biology had been significantly outstanding during the first half of the th century. During the critical years of debates on the mechanisms of evolution, e.g., selectionism vs. nonselectionist alternatives end of th and first decades of the th century , parasites were at the core of such discussions. Yet, the demise of evolutionary studies on parasites occurred after the inception of the Modern Synthesis of Evolution [ ], mainly because parasites fell into discredit as dead evolutionary ends, and as degenerate organisms living at the expense of their hosts. "s Fahrenholz viewed it [ , ], parasite evolution just mirrored host evolution. So why bother study parasites under an evolutionary perspective?"merican parasitologist Harold W Manter kept alive parasite evolutionary studies during the s and through the rest of his life. These studies were mainly historical biogeographic, although he considered that the interplay between ecology and evolution is the language of parasitology. He viewed such studies as bilingual messages that parasites conveyed, one from the ecological realm and one from evolutionary biology. He named this type of studies, parascript. Today we can interpret parascript studies as global research programmes that study parasite ecology and evolutionary biology from the distinct standpoints of microevolution and macroevolution.Parascript studies were initially explored by helminthologists [ , , , ] but unknowingly left out a great deal of information on insect ectoparasites as voiced by Ròzsa [ ] but see [ ] .Parascript studies, therefore, should not be restricted to the type of parasite. Parascript studies should encompass all different types of parasites, whether ecto or endoparasitic. Yet, the differences between them help monitor distinct levels of ecosystem structuring. It is probable that helminth parasites have been surveyed more in relation to historical biogeographical research than ectoparasites in general mainly because Professor Manter was a helminthologist. Currently, parascript is the study of parasites that connect the phylogenetic, biogeographical, historical, and ecological realms, where parasites play an important role as thermometers of environmental status and decidedly offer information on geomorphologic changes of the earth s crust, biogeography, and ecological status, where parasites as part of the interactor universe of their hosts can indicate the connections within trophic foodwebs, migrations, colonizations, and in situ speciation. They are an important if not one of the most important components of biomass in coastal ecosystems [ ]. In the words of Hoberg and Klassen [ ] parasites serve as keystones for understanding the history of biotas because of their critical value as phylogenetic, ecological and biogeographic indicators of their host ...