1932

Abstract

Neither geologists nor biologists have a definition that is capable of classifying Madagascar unambiguously as an island or a continent; nor can they incorporate Malagasy natural history into a single model rooted in Africa or Asia. Madagascar is a microcosm of the larger continents, with a rock record that spans more than 3000 million years (Ma), during which it has been united episodically with, and divorced from, Asian and African connections. This is reflected in its Precambrian history of deep crustal tectonics and a Phanerozoic history of biodiversity that fluctuated between cosmopolitanism and parochialism. Both vicariance and dispersal events over the past 90 Ma have blended a unique endemism on Madagascar, now in decline following rapid extinctions that started about 2000 years ago.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.earth.31.100901.141337
2003-05-01
2024-03-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.earth.31.100901.141337
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.earth.31.100901.141337
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error