Dispersal of the Genus Phelsuma in the Mascarenes
01/07/03 13:47 Filed in: Biogeography
All Mascarene species are closely related, indicating they must have had a common ancestor. On the other hand are the islands to young to have generated such a diverse group, with Phelsuma gigas on one end and Phelsuma inexpectata on the other. Most likely the source pool of this group was situated away from the fast speciation process and taxon cycle on Madagascar. 20.000 Years ago, Saya de Malha and Nazareth (incl. Cargados Carajos) formed large islands about 700 km north-east of Madagascar. The first of these islands (Saya de Malha) was formed about 35 Ma and was probably never submerged until the last ice age 18.000 years ago. Read More...
The role of the ice ages in the dispersal of the genus Phelsuma.
01/07/03 13:39 Filed in: Biogeography
Gondwana began to break up during Late Triassic to Early Jurassic time. Major mantle plumes such as the Karoo-Ferrar Plume that first split Gondwana at about 182 Ma, the Paraná-Etendeka plume at 132 Ma that split South America and Africa, the Marion plume at 88 Ma that split Madagascar and India and finally the Reunion hotspot that split the Mascarene Plateau from India at 64 Ma. Read More...
The Dodo's stepping stones the same as Phelsuma?
01/07/03 12:00 Filed in: Biogeography
The dodo was a flightless bird native to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. DNA from the extinct bird has revealed its place in the pigeon family tree, and suggests how it came to end up on its home, and graveyard, the island of Mauritius.
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