Classic ecological theory must explain effects of humans on biodiversity
to be more applicable today. We contemporized island biogeographic
theory providing native, introduced, and total species richness
relationship expectations with natural and anthropogenic metrics of
habitat diversity (geographic and economic area) and isolation from
source pools (geographic and economic isolation). We assessed these
expectations across Caribbean island herpetofauna clades. As expected by
the contemporized theory, natural habitat diversity metrics exhibited
positive relationships with native and introduced richness,
strengthening positive total richness-area relationships. Geographic
isolation exhibited negative relationships with native and positive
relationships with introduced richness, weakening total
richness-isolation relationships. Economic area and isolation exhibited
negative and positive relationships, respectively, with native richness
but positive and negative relationships, respectively, with introduced
richness. Total richness relationships with economic area and isolation
were strongest in clades with many introductions. As more species spread
globally, these contemporary expectations will increasingly predict
Anthropocene island biogeography.