[CINC] Scientists question "the island rule"

[David Chubb]

  (I tried to send this several days ago but I don't think it came through.)

http://www.tau.ac.il/lifesci/departments/zoology/members/meiri/documents/Raiaetal2010onesizedoesnotfitall.pdf

In this article (One size does not fit all: no evidence for an optimal
body size on islands) found at the above link, scientists claim to have
found evidence to refute the island rule, a theory that states species
that do not face competition will evolve towards a standard optimum body
size. The scientists use evidence to show this does not actually happen
on islands.

Although we have heard reasons for species on the Channel Islands
evolving to be smaller or larger, I have never heard it attributed to
this idea of evolving towards a standard optimal size. I did not see the
island fox, island scrub-jay, or pygmy mammoth listed in this study.

David Chubb