Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Biogeography

Washed up in Madagascar

Nature volume 463, pages 613–614 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

How, when and from where did Madagascar's unique mammalian fauna originate? The idea that the ancestors of that fauna rafted from Africa finds support in innovative simulations of ancient ocean currents.

The biogeographic origins of Madagascar's terrestrial mammals have befuddled natural historians for centuries. Are they relicts left over from when Madagascar lay at the centre of the Gondwanan supercontinent 165 million years (Myr) ago? Or did they simply disperse to the island from mainland Africa at a later time by walking across a causeway exposed by low sea levels? Alternatively, did they raft or swim across the Mozambique Channel, a seemingly insuperable barrier now 430 kilometres wide at its narrowest point? Ali and Huber's sophisticated modelling1 of Indian Ocean currents during the Eocene epoch, roughly 56–34 Myr ago, adds a big new piece to the puzzle. Their analysis (page 653 of this issue) complements evidence from molecular systematics, the fossil record and palaeogeography, and strongly favours a rafting scenario.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: By raft from Africa.

References

  1. Ali, J. R. & Huber, M. Nature 463, 653–656 (2010).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Yoder, A. D. & Nowak, M. D. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 37, 405–431 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Simpson, G. G. J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 30, 137–163 (1940).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Masters, J. C., Rayner, R. J. & Tattersall, I. in Creatures of the Dark: The Nocturnal Prosimians (eds Alterman, L., Doyle, G. A. & Izard, M. K.) 31–44 (Plenum, 1995).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  5. Heads, M. Zool. Scripta doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2009.00411.x (2009).

  6. McCall, R. A. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 264, 663–665 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Kappeler, P. M. Folia Primatol. (Basel) 71, 422–425 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Stankiewicz, J., Thiart, C., Masters, J. C. & de Wit, M. J. J. Biogeogr. 33, 221–235 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. de Queiroz, A. Trends Ecol. Evol. 20, 68–73 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Simpson, G. G. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 99, 163–176 (1952).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. David W. Krause is in the Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-8081, USA. david.krause@stonybrook.edu,

    David W. Krause

Authors
  1. David W. Krause
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Krause, D. Washed up in Madagascar. Nature 463, 613–614 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/463613a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/463613a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing