When small species are left alone to evolve for centuries on small islands, they often become larger. Quietly, over thousands of years, Dryococelus australis grew to a great size on Lord Howe Island, in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand.
But the peaceful life of the Lord Howe Island stick insect, an invertebrate of such gargantuan proportions that it is also fondly known as the tree lobster, was destroyed by European settlers. In 1918, a shipwreck brought black rats to the island. The flightless insects were once so common they were used by settlers as bait for fishing, but the rats wiped out the entire population on the island in just two years.
