Figure01. Island-based functional description of the Canary Islands terrestrial subterranean adapted fauna. (A) The number of species in each of the Canary Islands follows a generalised dynamic model for island biodiversity (Figure S1) (B) The functional hypervolumes (n=6) of each island converge, whose shape and boundaries are defined by 1000 random points; yet showing a certain segregation of the arrangement of the centroids (large points with white borders) according to island ages (represented by different colours) (Hypothesis 1). (C) Hypothesised contributions of speciation, community interactions, and extinction at islands at different stages. During early stages dominated by rapid speciation (S, blue arrows)  and ecological opportunity, we expect a rapid increase of functional richness (R, yellow area) of new species evolving new combination of traits that allow them to explore the available niche space (K, green square). At some point during island maturity, island communities reach the carrying capacity. At that point, diversity is driven by community dynamics that optimize the use of the available niche space. Finally, at a late stages’ dynamics are dominate by extinction (E, brown arrows), driven by a decrease of the available niche space. (D) Density plots show the distribution of beta taxonomical and functional values across islands. Whereas functional beta diversity varies from 0 to 0.8, taxonomical beta diversity is nearly 1, indicating nearly completely different species pools in each island.