June 26 – Madagascar's Independence Day

nPostednon June 26, 2014

nWhennI say “Madagascar,” do you think of the DreamWorks movie? Or ofnthe real-life island off the coast of Africa?

Many biologists are studying
Madagascar’s unique lifeforms.

nInthink of a biological hotspot. That means a place with a lot ofnanimal and plant diversity, and a place with a lot of unique speciesnthat don’t exist anywhere else. Like other islands, Madagascar was anplace where creatures could evolve in relative isolation from othernplaces – and so 90% of its wildlife isn’t found anywhere else onnEarth!

nIfnyou’re like me, you might wonder how the plants and animals got ontonMadagascar in the first place, if it was so isolated. Well, a long,nlong time ago (hundreds of millions of years in the past) there werentwo supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana. They had been creatednwhen the landmass we call Pangaea broke up (we’re talking continentalndrift, also known as plate tectonics), and Gondwana started to travelnsouthward. Pretty much all of the land mass that is now in thenSouthern Hemisphere was part of Gondwana: Africa, South America,nAustralia, Antarctca, India, and Madagascar. So lifeforms were notnisolated from each other during the Permian Period, when Pangeanexisted, and even through the early Jurassic Period, when Gondwananstarted to break apart, plants and animals weren’t particularlynisolated from one another. It has only been the past 88 millionnyears or so that Madagascar was isolated from other land masses.
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n(Did I just say ONLY 88 million years???)
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Madagascar is in red here.

nButntoday we are not celebrating Madagascar’s independence from Gondwananand other land masses. Instead, today Madagascar celebrates itsnindependence from France in 1960. Along with the usual feasting andndancing and fireworks, the people of Madagascar enjoy presentationsnof Hira Gasy, which is a musical version of Malagsay folklore,nwith singers and dancers portraying pieces of poetry and favoritenfolk tales.

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nLemursnand Medicines…

Becausenthere were no monkeys or apes to compete with, lemurs flourished innMadagascar. The original species branched off into more than 103nspecies and sub-species of lemurs – and at least 17 species havengone extinct since humans arrived on the island!

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nTherenare three times as many palm species as there are on all the rest ofnAfrica, and there are many other unique plant species on the island.nOne species has led to medicines to treat certain cancers, andnscientists hope to discover other cures or treatments among the plantnspecies found on this island only.

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Checknout this video about Madagascar’s top predator. It’s probablynno surprise that humans are (accidentally) threatening the survivalnof this species…but you may be surprised just how!