The composition of Madagascar's wildlife reflects the fact that the island has been isolated for about 88 million years. The prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana separated the Madagascar-Antarctica-India landmass from the Africa-South America landmass around 135 million years ago. Madagascar later split from India about 88 million years ago, allowing plants and animals on the island to evolve in relative isolation.[1]
As a result of the island's long isolation from neighboring continents, Madagascar is home to an abundance of plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth.[2][3] Approximately 90 percent of all plant and animal species found in Madagascar are endemic,[4] including the lemurs (a type of strepsirrhine primate), the carnivorous fossa and many birds. This distinctive ecology has led some ecologists to refer to Madagascar as the "eighth continent",[5] and the island has been classified by Conservation International as a biodiversity hotspot.[2] As recent as 2021, the "smallest reptile on earth" was also found in Madagascar, Brookesia nana, also known as the nano-chameleon.[6]
- ^ University of Berkeley: Understanding Evolution (October 2009). "Where did all of Madagascar's species come from?". Archived from the original on 16 May 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
- ^ a b Conservation International (2007). "Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands". Biodiversity Hotspots. Conservation International. Archived from the original on 24 August 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ^ Tattersall, Ian (2006). Origin of the Malagasy Strepshirhine Primates. Springer. pp. 1–6. ISBN 0-387-34585-X.
- ^ Hobbes & Dolan (2008), p. 517
- ^ Hillstrom & Collier Hillstrom (2003), p. 50
- ^ "'Smallest reptile on earth' discovered in Madagascar". BBC News. 5 February 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2021.