Palaeontological Aspects of Island Biogeography: Colonization and Evolution of Mammals on Mediterranean Islands

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Island biogeography can, from paleontological considerations, only be discussed with reasonable certainty for the last 20 M yr, from Miocene to the present. This is because of the increasing difficulty, going back in time, of recognizing ancient islands and determining their relationship to the nearest mainland. One is also limited with regard to the organisms available for study. Because of the availability of fossil remains, mammals have taken priority over other groups for paleontological analyses of island speciation. The elephants, hippopotami and deer tend to become greatly reduced in size (dwarfing): small mammals, such as rodents of various kinds, may become larger, even to the extent of gigantism. Strong adaptive selection is the main evolutionary force concerned in the speciation of these groups. The problem of the size of the founder populations is considered from the standpoint of catastrophic events and mass migration to a marine barrier and thereafter arrival at an island either by swimming, passive transport by oceanic currents or a combination of both.

This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit: