An improbable insular monopoly
Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Majorca is the only island worldwide on which a wild relative of goats and sheep, known as the mouse-goat (pictured above), has survived for five million years in complete isolation from mainlands. The simple reason for this is that in the Miocene, before human evolution even began, the Mediterranean Sea dried up so much that its ancestor – which was a poor swimmer – was able to walk to these islands.”
Robin and the Honey Badger respond: “The extreme persistence of the mouse-goat on Majorca is not explained by its ancestor walking there from the mainland. The important unanswered question is why powerful swimmers such as hippos, elephants and water buffaloes, which succeeded on many other islands, either failed to reach Majorca or failed to replace the mouse-goat after doing so.”
A reproduction of the mouse goat (Myotragus balearicus) © Xavier Vázquez