prehistoric presence of
endemic non-flying land mammals (three extinct species of Rodentia and one of Soricomorpha), which are absent
from the other archipelagos; and (ii) by their different history of human colonization. In the Canary Islands, two
well differentiated waves of human arrival took place; the “aboriginal”, from north-west Africa, some time
between 756 cal BC–313 cal AD (Alcover et al.2009), and a second wave of colonization from Europe starting in
the 14
th
century (Aznar et al.2006). The other Macaronesian archipelagos were first populated from Portugal
during the 15
th
century (Crosby 1988).