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Early in the history of systematic biology, scientists were interested in documenting the wonders of" the creation." Specimens procured on expeditions were placed in collections, and spectacular hand-colored plates graced giant monographs, showpieces of discovery and exploration. Darwin's work shifted interests to natural selection and the process of speciation. In addition to Darwin's volumes on evolution, whose main tenets were predicated on observations of island speciation patterns, Alfred Wallace's (1880) Island Life explained the great diversity of species on islands. Today, in an expanded concept islands remains the central focus for investigations of speciation and the mechanisms that drive change. Islands come in the form of Petri dish cultures of bacteria, bottles of Drosophila, mesic sky islands (mountaintop habitats isolated by intervening desert), and subaerial landmasses (surrounded by water). Evolution has remained the unifying principle of biology, and the concepts and methods associated with it have made their way into virtually all aspects of human culture.

Several groups of islands have been instructional in the development of evolutionary theory. The Galapagos Islands clearly had the greatest impact. However, the islands in the Sea of Cortes have also significantly influenced our understanding of the speciation process. Within herpetology, studies have looked at the evolution of insular gigantism (Case 1978b; Petren and Case 1997), anatomical and genetic variability (Soule et al. 1973), and species composition (Case 1975, 1983; Murphy 1983a). Others have addressed island biogeography in the manner of MacArthur and …