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Move Over, Madagascar: Luzon Has the Most Unique Mammals

52 pointsby palmdeezyalmost 9 years ago

2 comments

benkuykendallalmost 9 years ago
Why is &quot;number of unique species&quot; an interesting metric? If island A had three species of deer and island B had one species of deer and one species of wolf, island A would win under this measure, though B might seem more diverse.<p>Additionally, defining a species is a really messy problem (see <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Species_problem" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Species_problem</a>). A more objective measure, like fraction of shared genome, might make more sense in this context.
andrewflnralmost 9 years ago
It would be nice to see the absolute numbers of species for the other contenders. I don&#x27;t feel that percentage of endemic species is a useful metric.