Insular Carnivore Biogeography: Island Area and Mammalian Optimal Body Size
نویسندگان
چکیده
منابع مشابه
Insular carnivore biogeography: island area and mammalian optimal body size.
Patterns of size variation in insular mammals have been used to support the claim that mammals have a single optimal body size. This hypothesis enjoys wide support, despite having been questioned on both theoretical and empirical grounds. It is claimed that species of optimal size maintain the highest population densities. Therefore these species are thought to inhabit the smallest islands, whe...
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Body sizes of insular mammals often differ strikingly from those of their mainland conspecifics. Small islands have reduced numbers of competitor and predator species, and more limited resources. Such reductions are believed to select for predictable changes in body sizes, with large mammals growing progressively smaller as island area decreases, while small ones grow progressively larger. Medi...
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Many insular vertebrates have undergone rapid and dramatic changes in body size compared to their mainland counterparts. Here we explore the relationship between two well known patterns of island body size the tendency for large-bodied species to dwarf and small-bodied species to get larger on islands, known as the ‘‘island rule’’, and the scaling of maximum and minimum body size of island asse...
متن کاملBody size of insular carnivores: little support for the island rule.
Large mammals are thought to evolve to be smaller on islands, whereas small mammals grow larger. A negative correlation between relative size of island individuals and body mass is termed the "island rule." Several mechanisms--mainly competitive release, resource limitation, dispersal ability, and lighter predation pressure on islands, as well as a general physiological advantage of modal size-...
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ژورنال
عنوان ژورنال: The American Naturalist
سال: 2005
ISSN: 0003-0147,1537-5323
DOI: 10.1086/428297