From back cover - The Hawaiian Islands are a unique natural laboratory for the study of evolution. Highly isolated - more than 3,500 kilometers from the nearest continents - they have an abundant terrestrial biota with an extraordinary proportion of endemic species. Presenting new data and analysis, this book provides valuable evolutionary theories that can be applied to other insular areas, including the Galapagos Islands, Caribbean islands, and Florida keys, as well as terrestrial habitat islands. (Description by http-mart)