James Nguyen Biology 1615 9/15/2013 Judy Bunkall Morphological Evolution Summary In Virginia Milliens scientific article, she

presents a test prove that island mammals evolve at a faster rate than their mainland counterparts. Millien acknowledges that it is typically assumed that island mammals evolve at a faster rate because dramatic changes are not seen in their mainland relatives. She states that has been no rigorous testing of rapid evolution on islands. By comparing evolutionary rates of both island and mainland population over time, Millen is able to test if island mammals evolve at a fast rate than mainland mammals. If the island rule is true, then the data will show that the rate of evolution is higher in island mammals. The data was gathered from publications that provided raw data and tables. Experimental studies were excluded in the dataset used. Only skull, skeletal, teeth and external measurements were used as measurements for linear data. The rate of evolution was plotted on a graph of a log time interval in million years. What they found was that the rate of regression for island mammals was less than those of mainland mammals. The differences in change decreased at increased time intervals, but at ranges between 21 y to 20,000 presented the strongest data to suggest that island rates were greater than mainland rates. This data suggested that island species had a higher evolutionary rate than their counterparts. Nearly 60% of the species used for the data consisted of rodents. In order to find out if the large number of rodents affected the data, they were separated into another subgroup and

compared by island and mainland groups. The resulting data confirmed that the large number of rodents had no effect on the overall data and that rodents also experienced significant evolutionary change. Most cases resulted in a 75% larger value than the original and a minimum in the 25 percentile range. The results of this test confirm the hypothesis that the rate of evolution is higher in island mammals, and that the changes are greater within shorter time intervals. These results also suggest that the environment on islands favors faster evolution, due to factors such as lack of predators, limited resources, and competition between species. The results of the study also imply that a majority of mainland species have the ability to evolve more rapidly with changes in their environment. This is also important to understand as natural habitats and global climate changes and how species adapt to their environment. By taking data from several publications and plotting the information over time, Millien was able to compare the evolutionary changes of mainland mammals to those of island mammals. By doing so she was able to see that there was a difference in how certain environments may affect an animal over time. The data confirmed that island mammals evolved at a fast rate relative to mainland animals and as stated earlier implies that mainland animals also possess the same capability.