The important development achieved in the last years by the sea floor mapping and the seamounts-dating technology has enabled the reconstruction, albeit still with a high degree of uncertainty, of the geologic history of the Eastern Central Atlantic Ocean during the Cenozoic. Today we know that as early as 60 My BP there were already some volcanic islands (PalaeoMacaronesia) in this region, located much closer to the mainland than today’s extant archipelagos, reflecting the long-lasting activity of The Madeiran and The Canarian volcanic hot-spots. Many of these palaeoislands, now submerged as guyots (flat-topped seamounts) due to erosion and sea floor subsidence, still retain summits less than 120 m below the sea level, which enabled them to emerge during the Pleistocene sea level regressions and act as stepping stones. The present essay tries to vindicate the important role played by these palaeoislands both in the long-distance Europe-North America Trans-Atlantic dispersal of tropical taxa between 40 and 25 My BP, after the closure of the North Atlantic (Scotland-Greenland) corridor, as well as in their role in the colonization of the present archipelagos by palaeoendemics species, especially those constituting the Macaronesian relict laurel forest, an impoverished remnant of the South Europe and North Africa palaeotropical flora.

BIO: JMFP is Professor in Ecology at La Laguna University (Canary Islands). His main research topics include Island Ecology, Forest Dynamics, Palaeoecology and Restoration Ecology, fields in which he has authored some forty papers in impact scientific journals and ten books, especially dealing with the Canary Islands. Since 2005 is member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Biogeography.