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Foster's rule, also known as the island rule or the island effect, is an ecogeographical rule in evolutionary biology stating that members of a species get smaller or bigger depending on the resources available in the environment. For example, it is known that pygmy mammoths evolved from normal mammoths on small islands.
The theory of island biogeography was originally used to study oceanic islands, but those concepts can be extrapolated to other areas of study. Island species dynamics give information about how species move and interact within Island Like Systems (ILS). Rather than an actual island, ILS are primarily defined by their isolation within an ecosystem.
Size comparison of the giant gymnure (moonrat) Deinogalerix from the Late Miocene of Gargano, Italy, with a European hedgehog.. Island gigantism, or insular gigantism, is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal species isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives.
The Komodo dragon is an example of island gigantism. After immigration, birds, and some reptiles or mammals, tend to become larger and predatory, [6] showing relaxed intraspecific competition. [7] For mammals, small species will increase in size and large species will decrease in size. [8]
The pygmy mammoth is an example of insular dwarfism, a case of Foster's rule, its unusually small body size an adaptation to the limited resources of its island home.. A biological rule or biological law is a generalized law, principle, or rule of thumb formulated to describe patterns observed in living organisms.
The Theory of Island Biogeography is a 1967 book by the ecologist Robert MacArthur and the biologist Edward O. Wilson. [1] It is widely regarded as a seminal work in island biogeography and ecology. The Princeton University Press reprinted the book in 2001 as a part of the "Princeton Landmarks in Biology" series. [1]
Size comparison of the dwarf titanosaur, Magyarosaurus dacus, and a human. Hațeg Island was a large offshore island in the Tethys Sea of the Late Cretaceous [23] and is often called "The Island of the Dwarf Dinosaurs" on account of the extensive fossil evidence that its native dinosaurs exhibited island dwarfism.
An island is an area of land surrounded by water on all sides that is distinct from a continent. [1] There is no standard of size that distinguishes islands and continents. Continents have an accepted geological definition – they are the largest landmass of a particular tectonic plate. [2]