Roberto Rozzi

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig | iDiv · sDiv – Synthesis Centre

Islands have long been recognized as distinctive evolutionary arenas leading to morphologically divergent species, such as dwarfs and giants. We assessed how body size evolution in island mammals may have exacerbated their vulnerability, as well as how human arrival has contributed to their past and ongoing extinctions, by integrating data on 1231...

Aim Mammals on islands often undergo remarkable evolutionary changes. The acquisition of ‘low gear’ locomotion, namely short and robust limb elements, has been typically associated with the island syndrome in large mammals and, especially, ruminants. Here we provide an investigative framework to examine biotic and abiotic selective factors hypothes...

Insular woodiness (IW)—the evolutionary transition from herbaceousness toward woodiness on islands—is one of the most iconic features of island floras. Since pioneering work by Darwin and Wallace, a number of drivers of IW have been proposed, such as 1) competition for sunlight requiring plants with taller and stronger woody stems and 2) drought fa...

The fossil and extant faunas of Sulawesi, the largest island within the Wallacea biogeographic region, exhibit a high degree of endemism. The lowland anoa Bubalus depressicornis and the mountain anoa Bubalus quarlesi, two closely-related dwarfed buffaloes, are among the most peculiar endemic mammals of the region. Here, I describe a new species, Bu...

The island rule describes a graded trend in insular populations of vertebrates from gigantism in small species to dwarfism in large species. The dwarfing of large mammals on islands has been observed both in the present fauna and in the fossil record. Elephants, hippopotami, deer, and other species became dwarfed on islands scattered all over the w...

Genomic data for wild species of the genus Bubalus (Asian buffaloes) are still lacking while several whole genomes are currently available for domestic water buffaloes. To address this, we sequenced the genome of a wild endangered dwarf buffalo, the lowland anoa (Bubalus depressicornis), produced a draft genome assembly, and made comparison to publ...

Ecological thresholds comprise relatively fast changes in ecological conditions, with respect to time or external drivers, and are an attractive concept in both scientific and policy arenas. However, there is considerable debate concerning the existence, underlying mechanisms, and generalizability of ecological thresholds across a range of ecologic...

Predicting why and when a species will become extinct is a crucial, yet challenging task in conservation research. Geohistorical data can provide essential information on how ecosystems reacted to disturbances, such as climate change and anthropogenic impacts, and have proven especially useful in understanding extinction risks. Here, we used a newl...

Genomic data for wild species of the genus Bubalus (Asian buffaloes) are still lacking while several whole genomes are currently available for domestic water buffaloes. To address this, we sequenced the genome of a wild endangered dwarf buffalo, the lowland anoa ( Bubalus depressicornis ), produced a draft genome assembly, and made comparison to pu...

Insular woodiness (IW)-the evolutionary transition from herbaceousness towards woodiness on islands-is one of the most iconic features of island floras. Since pioneering work by Darwin and Wallace, five IW drivers have been proposed: (i) favourable aseasonal climate and (ii) lack of large native herbivores promote plant longevity that (iii) results...

The extinction of all Madagascar's megafrugivores ca 1000 years ago, may have left its signature on the current distribution of vertebrate‐dispersed plants across the island, due to the loss of effective seed dispersal. In this study, we dissect the roles of extinct and extant frugivore distributions, abiotic variables, human impact and spatial pre...

In a recent study (Curaudeau et al., 2021), we investigated phylogenetic relationships within the genus Bubalus by analysing 15 genomes, including three newly sequenced genomes from two domestic swamp buffaloes and from a lowland anoa (Bubalus depressicornis). We assembled and analysed three genomic datasets: the mitochondrial genome (15,468 bp; ma...

Two types of domestic water buffalo are currently recognized: the river buffalo from the Indian subcontinent and Mediterranean countries and the swamp buffalo from China and Southeast Asia. To test the hypothesis of two separate species of water buffalo, we sequenced the genome of the lowland anoa, Bubalus depressicornis, which is a dwarf wild buff...

Bovids are intriguing elements of insular faunas and encompass several species that inhabited or are still living on islands located in different regions, from the Mediterranean to Southeast Asia. While the most popular insular endemic bovid is without doubt the extinct mouse-goat (Myotragus balearicus) from the Balearic Islands, living examples of...

Appendix S1: source data, characteristics of focal taxa and islands, detailed statistical results.

Aim: I provide the first comprehensive study on body size evolution of extinct and living insular bovids, exploring the causal biotic and abiotic selective factors for observed patterns. Location: Islands worldwide. Methods: I assembled data on the geographic characteristics of 13 focal islands (area, isolation, latitude, net primary produc...

Evolutionary shifts in body size exhibited by island biotas result from the synergetic influences of selective biotic and abiotic forces. Inquiring into the nature and rate of these trends in the light of the island rule is helpful to better understand changes in the structure of insular communities over time. Java, one of Greater Sunda Islands, is...

Endemic bovids are intriguing elements of insular faunas. The living species include the Japanese serow (Capricornis crispus) and the Formosan serow (C. swinhoei), the tamaraw from Mindoro, Philippines, (Bubalus mindorensis) and the anoas (B. depressicornis and B. quarlesi), 2 species of dwarf buffalos endemic to Sulawesi, Indonesia. Fossil endemic...

A variety of methods have been developed to use bovid postcranial elements in the functional morphology approach to paleohabitat prediction. This study represents a first attempt at testing morphometric methods based on astragalus and phalanges on extant mountain-dwelling bovids and insular fossil bovids from Sardinia assigned to the so-called 'Nes...

Insular fossil bovids, ranging in age from the latest Miocene to the Holocene, are widely recorded in Asian and Western Mediterranean islands. Several taxa characterized by different levels of endemism, but no species with an entirely identical adaptation, existed on different islands. Even considering that evolutionary processes, affecting size a...

Aim We assessed the generality of the island rule in a database comprising 1593 populations of insular mammals (439 species, including 63 species of fossil mammals), and tested whether observed patterns differed among taxonomic and functional groups. Location Islands world-wide. Methods We measured museum specimens (fossil mammals) and reviewed the...

During the Pleistocene, the Sunda Islands to which Java belongs were frequently connected with the East Asian mainland, permitting faunal elements of Indo-Chinese origin entering Java. Therefore, most Javanese mammalian taxa are close if not identical to their mainland relatives. In particular, three fossil bovids, commonly found in the Early–Middl...

Bovids are not so common in endemic insular faunas and are mainly recorded in Southeast Asia, Japan and some Mediterranean islands. In the Western Mediterranean, endemic bovids have been recorded during the late Miocene in the Tusco-Sardinian palaeobioprovince (Baccinello-Cinigiano basin, South Tuscany, and Fiume Santo, north-western Sardinia). In...

The present article introduces the main aspects of one of the most spectacular phenomena in nature: the evolution of insular fauna, particularly the changes in size undergone by insular vertebrates with respect to their mainland ancestors. Some case histories expounding this ‘graded’ pattern are introduced as the dramatic decrease in size of the la...

During the Quaternary, bovids are common elements in the Italian local faunal assemblages (LFAs). Representatives of Bovini tribe are continuously present, albeit with different lineages. Caprini are sporadically recorded by several genera, and Antilopini are less represented, only during the Early Pleistocene in the middle and early late Villafran...

During the Pleistocene, the Sunda islands to which Java belongs were frequently connected with the East Asian mainland, permitting faunal elements of Indo-Chinese origin entering Java. Therefore, most of Javanese mammalian taxa are close if not identical to their mainland relatives. In particular, three fossil bovids, commonly found in the Early-Mi...

A variety of methods have been developed with regard to the use of bovid postcranial elements in the functional morphology approach to palaeohabitat prediction. One postcranial element that has proven useful in past habitat reconstructions is the bovid femur. In this study we applied a biometrical method, combined with an eco-morphological analysis...

The evolutionary succession of Quaternary Sardinian fauna (from impoverished but balanced, to disharmonic, strongly impoverished, and highly unbalanced with respect to faunas inhabiting similar continental ecosystems) has already been outlined. Two main faunal complexes (FCs) and three Quaternary faunal subcomplexes (FsCs) have been depicted. Each...

This article presents the preliminary results of research recently performed at La Ficoncella (Northern Latium) site. Discovered during the 1990s, the site of La Ficoncella has been inserted in recent years into a research program promoted by the fruitful collaboration between the Museum of Allumiere, Soprintendenza, the University of Rome “La Sapi...

During the Middle Pleistocene, the fossil subspecies was widespread from Georgia to Portugal, though it is scantily recorded in localfaunal assemblages of Southern Europe. Its occurrence in a few Late Pleistocene sites needs to be confirmed. In Italy, the subspecies isrecorded in the late Galerian fauna of Visogliano (MIS 13 - 10) as well as in the...

During the Quaternary, bovids are common elements in the Italian local faunal assemblages (LFAs). Representatives of Bovini tribe are continuously present, albeit with different lineages. Caprini are sporadically recorded by several genera, and Antilopini are less represented, only during the Early Pleistocene in the middle and early late Villafran...

During the Middle Pleistocene, the fossil subspecies was widespread from Georgia to Portugal, though it is scantily recorded in local faunal assemblages of Southern Europe. Its occurrence in a few Late Pleistocene sites needs to be confirmed. In Italy, the subspecies is recorded in the late Galerian fauna of Visogliano (MIS 13 - 10) as well as in t...