Abstract
David Lack’s interest in coexisting avian seed eaters was extraordinarily seminal. His work, Darwin’s Finches (1947), suggested that several species of this family might be avoiding competitive exclusion by virtue of their dissimilar beak sizes. A likely hypothesis seemed to be that each beak size is specialised for a particular range of seed sizes (Bowman, 1961). Theories have since been developed that explain how this might come about (see, for example, MacArthur and Pianka, 1966; Emlen, 1966). In general they may be summarised by noting that they all require a trade-off in adaptiveness: the phenotype that is well adapted to utilising one portion of a resource spectrum is, perforce, poorly adapted for other portions of it. In the case of granivores, this might mean that, for a bird of given size, hulling over-large seeds is too costly in time or energy, and small seeds are too unrewarding, to be profitable. MacArthur and MacArthur (1972) have shown that this is probably true for certain American birds.
Michael L. Rosenzweig received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966. Robert H. MacArthur and W. John Smith were his preceptors. His research has centred on population interactions, particularly on theoretical aspects of exploitation and competition in rodents. Having held positions at the University of New Mexico, SUNY-Albany, and Bucknell University, He is currently Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, at the University of Arizona.
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Rosenzweig, M.L. (1977). Coexistence and diversity in Heteromyid rodents. In: Stonehouse, B., Perrins, C. (eds) Evolutionary Ecology. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05226-4_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05226-4_9
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