Data from: Resurrection of the island rule - human-driven extinctions have obscured a basic evolutionary pattern

Islands are or have been occupied by unusual species, such as dwarf proboscideans and giant rodents. The discussion of the classical, but controversial “island rule,” which states that mammalian body sizes converge on intermediate sizes on islands, has been stimulated by these unusual species. In this study, we use an unprecedented global data set of the distributions and body sizes of late-Quaternary mammal species and a novel analytical method to analyze body size evolution on islands. The analyses produced strong support for the island rule. Islands have suffered massive human-driven losses of species, and we found that the support for the island rule was substantially stronger when the many late-Quaternary extinct species were also considered (particularly, the tendency for dwarfing in large taxa). The decisive support for the island rule in this study confirms that evolution plays out markedly different on islands and that human impact may obscure even fundamental evolutionary patterns.岛屿上曾栖息或至今仍生存着诸多特殊类群，例如矮化长鼻类（proboscideans）与巨型啮齿类。这类特殊类群的发现，推动了学界对经典却颇具争议的岛屿法则（island rule）的讨论——该法则提出，岛屿环境下哺乳动物的体型会向中等体型收敛。本研究依托前所未有的全球晚第四纪哺乳动物物种分布与体型数据集，结合全新的分析方法，对岛屿上的体型演化展开系统分析。分析结果为岛屿法则提供了强有力的实证支撑。 岛屿生态系统曾遭受人类活动驱动的大规模物种灭绝，我们的研究发现，当纳入诸多晚第四纪灭绝物种（尤其是大型类群的矮化趋势）后，岛屿法则的支持证据会显著增强。本研究对岛屿法则的决定性验证，证实了岛屿上的演化进程与大陆存在显著差异，同时也表明人类活动可能会掩盖甚至扭曲最基础的演化规律。