The Atlantic

Rainforest Trees Are Like Islands

Bigger trees are home to a greater diversity of ant species.<br />
Source: Nacho Doce / Reuters

In the 1970s, biologists realized something interesting about islands: There was a correlation between their size and the number of species they harbored, apparently a kind of evolutionary natural law. Soon, the idea was extended to other kinds of geography—the number of mammal species on mountaintops, similar to islands in their isolation, can also be predicted by their area. The relationship between species number and

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