This idea helped to forever establish him as the father of biogeography, the study of the distribution of living things.

这法帮助他永远确立了生分布研究，也就是生地理学之父地位。

Studies of this field boomed soon after the publication of MacArthur and Wilson's seminal Theory of island biogeography in 1967.

1967 年麦克阿瑟和尔逊开创性岛屿生地理学理论发表后，这一领域研究迅速蓬勃发展。

And, because the distribution of living species today partly reflects ancient geological events, he saw biogeography as a way to uncover epic chapters of the planet's history that might otherwise have been unknowable.

而且，因为今天生分布部分地反映了古代地质事件，他把生地理学看作是揭开地球历史篇章一方式，否则可能至今仍不为人知。