Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Some of the plants and animals present on the island today are the results of adaptation
from the original, marooned Gondwana stock. Ancient groups such as the ferns, cycads,
palms and screw pines, and primitive reptiles such as the boas and iguanids, are descend-
ants of this relic community. Yet the magic of Madagascar is that a select band of species
has enriched the community by arriving since the break-up. Flying, swimming, journeying
as seeds or riding the floodwaters of the east African rivers in hollow trunks, wave after
wave ofmorerecent plants andanimals came fromoverthehorizonduringaperiodof100
million years, bringing with them the latest adaptations from the big world beyond. Co-
lonisers, such as the lemurs and carnivores, may have had a helping hand from a partial
land-bridge whichisthoughttohaveappeared frombeneath thewavesoftheMozambique
Channel about 40 million years ago.
Yet, whatever their mode of transport, upon landfall each species spread outwards in
every direction, through the tremendous range of habitats, changing subtly as they en-
countered new environments, frequently to the extent that new species were formed. This
evolutionary process is termed 'adaptive radiation' and it results in the creation of an array
of new species found nowhere else.
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