![]() ![]() Isolation and area have little effect on lizard life history. Clutch size, brood frequency and productivity increase with increasing island age. Results Oceanic island endemics have the smallest clutches and the largest offspring, and, together with continental fragment island endemics, lay most frequently. In addition, we tested the influences of island age, area and isolation on species life histories. We controlled for female size, for latitude and for phylogenetic relationship using the R package caper. We tested whether clutch size, brood frequency, hatchling mass and productivity differed between islands of different origin and between islands and the mainland. Methods We assembled life-history data for 540 mainland and 319 insular endemic lizard species. We predicted that species on old, small and isolated islands will also have slow life histories. We hypothesized that oceanic island endemics will show the slowest life histories, whereas land-bridge island species will resemble mainland species the most. ![]() Animals colonizing, and radiating on, oceanic islands probably face more novel environments than do those inhabiting continental fragment and land-bridge islands. The occurrence of lower numbers of predator and competitor species on islands than the mainland selects for ‘slow’ life-history attributes (the ‘island syndrome’). Aim The origins of islands influence island colonization and radiation dynamics, thus exerting differential selection pressures on the species that inhabit them. ![]()
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