A growing literature provides examples of dispersal-facilitating traits accumulating at expanding range edges.
The classic examples of these dispersal mechanisms include dandelions (Taraxacum spp., Asteraceae), which have a feathery pappus attached to their seeds and can be dispersed long distances, and maples (Acer (genus) spp., Sapindaceae), which have winged seeds and flutter to the ground.
The changes resulting from human selection conform to the familiar domestication syndrome, though different traits making up this syndrome, for example loss of dispersal, are achieved by different routes in crops belonging to different families.
Our finding that the Hawai'ian seahorse H. fisheri is closely associated with American/West African seahorses provides a further example of westward dispersal from the Americas, an event that was estimated to taken place after the closure of the Central American Seaway.
For example, the pattern of dispersal for the deep-sea octocoral Paragorgia arborea matches the Miocene ocean circulation model [ 35].
However, the fossil history of both alligatorids and gavialids includes examples of trans-oceanic dispersal.
(iv) Do the recent outbreaks in southern Germany constitute examples of long-distance dispersal events?
This was one of the first examples of male-biased dispersal based on molecular evidence and is still used in textbooks (e.g. p. 229 in [ 28]).
Remarkable examples of recent transoceanic dispersal include geckos, monkeys, lemurs, carnivores, chameleons, frogs, insects, and several angiosperm families, among others [reviewed in [ 46]].
Multiple examples of long-distance dispersals of diploid progenitors or polyploid founders followed by adaptive radiation are documented on well-studied archipelagos (Canary Islands, New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands) [ 14- 17].
These interactions can be either ecological, if justified, for example, by natural mechanisms of dispersal (plant species dynamics), or crop successions in anthropized landscapes, or statistical (geometrical).
