There were huge tortoises, giant predatory raptors, and pygmy hippopotamuses. There were gigantic flightless birds called elephant birds. These birds were larger than any other birds - living or extinct. They were heavier than the famous foot-tall moas of New Zealand. The eggs of elephant birds could hold the fluid contents of about chicken eggs! There were no cats or dogs on Madagascar; rather there were strange primitive carnivores mongooses, civets, and cryptoprocts , including one that weighed more than 10 kilograms.
Madagascar's unusual endemism makes it one of the world's top conservation priorities. But its endemic plants and animals continue to suffer from practices such as slash-and-burn agriculture and the harvesting of woody plants for charcoal and timber. Grasses are often deliberately burned to stimulate the growth of fresh blades to feed the cattle. Wild animals are sometimes also hunted. Because of the tremendous endemicity and wealth of plant and animal species on Madagascar, conservationists believe that forest destruction here may have a greater negative impact on global biodiversity than anywhere else on earth.
Subfossil Finds Cave, marsh, and stream sites have yielded the bones of animals that lived on the great island prior to colonization by humans and during the past two millennia. These subfossil sites, so-called because the bones are too fresh to have become fossilized, provide some direct evidence of the history of the long and slow decimation of Madagascar's wildlife following the arrival of humans. Recent explorations of some of these subfossil sites by a team from Duke University North Carolina and associated scientists from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the University of Madagascar in Antananarivo have added enormously to our knowledge of the anatomy and adaptations of Madagascar's paleofauna.
Ancient single origin for Malagasy primates. Read it » Yoder, A. Has vicariance or dispersal been the predominant biogeographic force in Madagascar?
Only time will tell. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Read it » News articles: A blog entry on the impact of political unrest on Madagascar's conservation efforts from NatGeo Newswatch A news article on recently discovered species and threats to biodiversity in Madagascar from Reuters Understanding Evolution resources: A tutorial on the process of speciation An introduction to phylogenetics An advanced tutorial on phylogenetics Background information from Understanding Global Change: Distribution of continents and oceans.
What does it mean to say that an organism is endemic to a particular place? What is the difference between dispersal and vicariance? Review the process of speciation. How can dispersal and vicariance contribute to speciation? Imagine that a frog species is widely distributed on a continent.
Through tectonic action, the continent splits into two. Then each of the two halves of the continent splits again, producing four separate land masses. If this process caused the frog lineage to speciate into four new species through vicariance, what would you expect the phylogeny of the frog species to look like?
Imagine that a lizard species lives on a small volcanic island. Some individuals from this population disperse to a neighboring island and evolve into two new species there species A and B. Then a few more individuals from the original population disperse to a different island, where they evolve into species C.
Then, yet another group of lizards from the original population disperses to yet another island, where they evolve into species D. The lizard species that remains on the original island is called species E. Draw the phylogeny of species A-E, labeling the tips of the phylogeny. Teach about biogeography, phylogenetics, and speciation : In this lesson for grades , students "take a trip" to the Greater Antilles to figure out how the Anolis lizards on the islands might have evolved. The smaller species that have survived make up the present day lemurs.
The total number of species changes regularly when new species are identified. This includes the ring-tailed lemur with its furry, striped tail, the dancing sifakas that leap sideways through the trees, and the goblin-like nocturnal aye-aye which uses its long middle finger to dig for food.
Subfossil discoveries of extinct lemur species tell us there was even greater diversity before. It is believed that one extinct lemur species was the size of a gorilla! Hunting may have led to the extinction of this and other species after the arrival of humans on the island approximately 2, years ago.
Ring-tailed lemurs at Duisburg. Photo: Mathias Appel. Lemurs are a diverse group of primates, but share several common traits. These traits distinguish them from other types of primates, like monkeys and apes. What are their unique characteristics? Lemurs communicate in various ways, but their sense of smell is particularly unique.
Compared to many other primates, they have longer snouts and wet noses that help them communicate with smell. The male panther chameleons are more colourful than the females. Panther chameleons have the power to change their colour with incredible speed. It is also affected by their state of emotion, health, temperature variations and light intensity. The male panther chameleons display such an amazing skin colour transformation during breeding season or on defence.
The female chameleon usually has a dull colour either grey or brown. But, during the breeding season, they also become pale or orange to pink in colour.
Tomato frogs are so named as a result of their bright orange-red coloured skin. Only the female frogs have such a brilliant tomato like colour.
Whereas the male frogs normally have a brown-orange colouring. The tomato frogs inhabit swamps, shallow pools or other wetter parts of the island. The bright colour of the frog serves as a warning to their predators. Tomato frogs, however, are not very toxic, when threatened, their skin produces a thick, sticky fluid to deter potential predators such as snakes. The tomato frog is also an ambush predator which means that they sit in a particular spot and will make a surprise attack on their prey.
Their diet consists of insects and small invertebrates. The Sifaka is an adorable species of Lemur that is only found in Madagascar.
They are one of the most endangered species of Madagascar. Madagascar is famous for being the home of Lemurs. There are 50 different types of Lemur found within the forests of Madagascar.
The Indri is the largest of all the lemurs found in Madagascar, they are also one of the most endangered species of lemur with a population less than 10, The Indris inhabit the rainforests of the eastern part of Madagascar.
They usually live in small groups that include animals. They are best known for making high pitch calls, to communicate with each other. These calls are loud enough to be heard from miles away! These creatures are the top predators in Madagascar. They are strong, with a muscular body and a short reddish-brown coat.
The long tail is one of the most distinguishing features of the fossa, as it actually makes up for half its length! The Fossa are very agile climbers, with retractable claws and flexible ankle joints which allow them to easily climb up on the trees.
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