MARK V. LOMOLINO is a Professor in the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, USA. His research and teaching focus on biogeography, community ecology, and conservation of biological diversity. He is a cofounder and past President of the International Biogeography Society. Dr. Lomolino received the American Society of Mammalogists Award for his dissertation studies on the ecology, evolution, and biogeography of insular mammals. He is a co-editor of two books, Foundations of Biogeography (University of Chicago Press) and Frontiers of Biogeography: New Directions in the Geography of Nature . BRETT R. RIDDLE is a Professor in… the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nevada, USA. His research focuses primarily on the history of biodiversity in western North America, with ongoing projects including: historical assembly of the warm desert biotas; phylogeography of Great Basin cold desert and montane island biotas; and molecular systematics and biogeography of a diverse cadre of North American rodent groups. He is a co-founder and past President of the International Biogeography Society, and an Editor of the Journal of Biogeography and Associate Editor of Systematic Bi ology. ROBERTnbsp;J. WHITTAKER is Professor of Biogeography in the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, UK, and is an Honorary Professor in Macroecology and Climate, in the Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a co-founder and current President of the International Biogeography Society, and is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biogeography . He is co-author of Island Biogeography: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation , published by Oxford University Press, and has research interests spanning island biogeography, diversity theory, and conservation biogeography. JAMES H. BROWNnbsp;is Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of New Mexico, USA. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and past President of the International Biogeography Society, the American Society of Mammalogists, the American Society of Naturalists, and the Ecological Society of America. His broad research interests include biological scaling, metabolic and community ecology, and biogeography. He has trained several Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scientists who are making major contributions to biogeography and ecology.