Islands have long been recognized as distinctive evolutionary arenas leading to
morphologically divergent species, such as dwarfs and giants. We assessed how body size …

Myotragus balearicus was the last living representative of an extinct caprine lineage
endemic to the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean), which became extinct following …

Bovids are not so common in endemic insular faunas and are mainly recorded in Southeast
Asia, Japan and some Mediterranean islands. In the Western Mediterranean, endemic …

Aim We investigated the hypothesis that body size evolution of mammals is strongly
influenced by ecological interactions, resulting in evolutionary divergence in body size in …

Since the time of Darwin (1859) and Wallace (1869), islands have been regarded by
scientists as a prime target for scrutinizing the forces that may influence evolution and …

Giraffids are a group of relict pecoran ruminants with only two living taxa. During the
Miocene, however, this group was much more diverse, with more than 20 different species …

The flat areas of eastern and southern Mallorca host a remarkable coastal karst, where Cova
des Pas de Vallgornera stands out due to its length (more than 74 km) and its special …

Evolution in isolated island has shaped a variety of endemic taxa with outstanding
characteristics. Amongst them is the extinct bovid genus Myotragus, endemic to Mallorca …

Humans colonized the Balearic Islands 5–4 ka ago. They arrived in a uniquely adapted
ecosystem with the Balearic mountain goat Myotragus balearicus (Bovidae, Antilopinae …

Endemic mammalian species on islands are generally known to have followed a different
evolutionary pathway than their mainland relatives. General patterns, such as body size …