Evolution of island mammals : adaptation and extinction of placental mammals on islands / Alexandra van der Geer, George Lyras, and John de Vos.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Geer, Alexandra van der, 1963- author.

Lyras, G. A. (George A.), author.

Vos, John de, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mammals--Evolution.

Mammals.

Island animals--Evolution.

Island animals.

Evolution.

Physical Description:

xi, 563 pages, 21 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 27 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Hoboken, NJ : Wiley-Blackwell, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2021.

Summary:

"Isolated from the continental landmasses, island species evolve novel and often extreme adaptations to new ecological niches. In this book, the past effects of insularity on mammal lineages are discussed, based on more than 300 fossil insular species, which were endemic to at least 30 islands all over the world, and ranging from the Eocene to the Holocene, with a few Cretaceous cases. The evolution of body size change is at first sight the most spectacular and certainly the best-known effect of ecological release-a shift and decline in the relative importance of interspecific interactions to an increase in the importance of intraspecific interactions-. Many large herbivores, like elephants (plate 1) and hippos, evolved towards miniature forms on islands while many small mammals, like rodents and pikas, evolved towards giant forms. Since island faunas are highly disharmonic, with many major groups missing, most or all ecologically relevant competitors are absent. Therefore, the colonising species could expand or even change their ecological niche. In fossil species, this can be deduced from observations such as the evolution of hypsodonty-high-crowned cheek teeth-in herbivores, shifts in prey species in carnivores, fusion and shortening of limb bones, and changes in body proportions. Patterns are not the same everywhere, as we shall see. Islands differ amongst each other, and so do their faunas: these may be balanced (mainland ratio between carnivore and herbivore species), unbalanced (ratio between carnivores and herbivores shifted towards the latter), disharmonic or depauperate (poor taxonomic diversity on higher levels), entirely endemic (all species restricted to the island, not found elsewhere) or mainland-like (hardly different from continental faunas of similar latitude)"-- Provided by publisher.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Geer, Alexandra van der, 1963- Evolution of island mammals

ISBN:

9781119675730

1119675731

OCLC:

1178868069

Publisher Number:

99989605845