Biddick & Burns (2021) proposed a null/neutral model that reproduces the island rule as a product of random drift. We agree that it is unnecessary to assume adaptive processes driving island dwarfing or gigantism, but several flaws make their approach unrealistic and thus unsuitable as a stochastic model for evolutionary size changes.
Keywords: adaptation; body mass; genetic drift; island rule; macroecology; macroevolution; neutral models; null models; quantitative genetics; randomisation.
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