The large variation is instead explained as an example of adaptive radiation, starting when the Miocene ancestor colonized the island.
32.
Adaptive radiation is when a single species colonizes an area and rapidly diversifies to fill all of the available niches.
33.
Mass extinctions are often followed by adaptive radiations as existing clades expand to occupy the ecospace emptied by the extinction.
34.
It is a species in a remarkable pattern of adaptive radiation and speciation that has been documented in the Gal�pagos Islands.
35.
A further wave of adaptive radiation occurred after one or more colonizations of Australia some 2 to 3 million years later.
36.
In Africa, the Afrotheria underwent a major adaptive radiation, which led to elephants, elephant shrews, tenrecs, golden moles, aardvarks, and manatees.
37.
Generally speaking, however, the dispersal and subsequent explosive adaptive radiation of extant canid and cervid genera by continent are as follows:
38.
Darwin s finches exhibited adaptive radiation by evolving different beak sizes to exploit the diversity of seeds present on the different islands.
39.
Moreover, figs with different plant habits have undergone adaptive radiation in different biogeographic regions, leading to very high levels of alpha diversity.
40.
Many modern snake groups originated during the Paleocene, alongside the adaptive radiation of mammals following the extinction of ( non-avian ) dinosaurs.
