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Madagascar evolved in geographic isolation for ninety million years

Splitting from the Indian landmass millions of years ago, Madagascar developed extraordinary endemic flora.

Located in the western Indian Ocean off Mozambique, Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island. Over ninety per cent of its native wildlife species, including lemurs and baobab trees, are found nowhere else on Earth. Its unique ecological heritage has led biologists to describe it as a virtual eighth continent.

Madagascar Landscape (21163213578)
Rod Waddington from Kergunyah, Australia ยท CC BY-SA 2.0 ยท licence ยท source

Where this comes from

National Geographic

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Tags: madagascar, africa, islands, biodiversity

Madagascar evolved in geographic isolation for ninety million years: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Splitting from the Indian landmass millions of years ago, Madagascar developed extraordinary endemic flora. The figure is taken from National Geographic, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a world geography fact?
Yes. It sits on the World Geography shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
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