[FRIAM] Evolution in vary environments

[Roger Critchlow]

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 <nickthompson at earthlink.net> 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" <rec at elf.org> <%3Crec at elf.org%3E>
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Evolution in varying environments
> To: nickthompson at earthlink.net, "The Friday Morning Applied
> Complexity Coffee Group" <friam at redfish.com> <%3Cfriam at redfish.com%3E>
> Message-ID:
> <66d1c98f0708141906p5bef8a7bw88b4f6a224bd0add at mail.gmail.com><%09%3C66d1c98f0708141906p5bef8a7bw88b4f6a224bd0add at mail.gmail.com%3E>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> On 8/14/07, Nicholas Thompson <nickthompson at earthlink.net><%3Cnickthompson at earthlink.net%3E>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 (nick at redfish.com)
> Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University (
> nthompson at clarku.edu)
>
>
>
>
>
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