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

这个想法帮助他永远确立了生物分布研究，也就是生物地理学之父的地位。

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

1967 年麦克阿瑟和威尔逊开创性的岛屿生物地理学理论发表后，这一领域的研究迅速蓬勃发展。

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，因为今天生物物种的分布部分地反映了古代地质事件，他把生物地理学看作是揭开地球历史篇章的一种方式，否则可能至今仍不为人知。