Nick -- I can't tell whether you're worried that I'm misrepresenting the findings of the paper or that the authors are ignorant of island biogeography.
I said: "The second, which was published a day earlier, is about the same thing, only for real. The environment in Madagascar is diverse, but the diverse regions all share an unpredictable rainfall through the year and year to year. This unpredictability is proposed to contribute to the unusual diversity of mammals found." Maybe diversity is the wrong word. It isn't the one the authors chose in their abstract. The issue is the extreme spread of life cycle adaptation among the mammals found. -- rec -- On 8/15/07, Nicholas Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Roger, > > Is it possible w e are confusing two variables here? Variability in the > environment and isolation of the environment from others. > > Galapagos Islands have both a high level of endemicity and many missing > taxa, no? So, Madagascar is just a rather extreme example of island > geography? > > Nick > > Nick > > > > Message: 24 > Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:06:54 -0600 > From: "Roger Critchlow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Evolution in varying environments > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], "The Friday Morning Applied > Complexity Coffee Group" <friam@redfish.com> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Message-ID: > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > On 8/14/07, Nicholas Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > > > > Hmm Roger. I always thought that unpredictable environments contribute > > more within-species diversitity and FEWER species. > > > > Nick > > > > Nick -- > > Apparently a generalization that fits some of the facts. > > The communities of Madagascar are characterized by high > levels of endemicity, great species diversity in some taxonomic > groups, and a complete absence of others. > > -- rec -- > -------------- next part -------------- > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > Research Associate, Redfish Group, Santa Fe, NM ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University ( > [EMAIL PROTECTED]) > > > > >
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