Refuge areas (pl. refugia). Haffer (1969) Science 165:131 argues that ‘during several dry climatic periods of the Pleistocene and post-Pleistocene, the Amazonian forest was divided into a number of smaller forests which were isolated from each other by tracts of open, nonforest vegetation. The remaining forests served as “refuge areas” for numerous populations of forest animals, which deviated from one another during periods of geographic isolation. The isolated forests were again united during humid climatic periods when the intervening open country became once more forest-covered, permitting the refuge-area populations to extend their ranges (Baker Amer. Scientist, nd). This is the refugia hypothesis which T. T. Veblen, A. Orme, and K. Young, eds (2007), p. 125, cast doubt on.