Mammalian biodiversity on Madagascar controlled by ocean currents
Abstract
Madagascar hosts one of the world’s most unusual, endemic, diverse and threatened concentrations of fauna1. To explain its unique, imbalanced biological diversity, G. G. Simpson proposed the ‘sweepstakes hypothesis’, according to which the ancestors of Madagascar’s present-day mammal stock rafted there from Africa2. This is an important hypothesis in biogeography and evolutionary theory for how animals colonize new frontiers1, 3, 4, 5, but its validity is questioned5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Studies suggest that currents were inconsistent with rafting to Madagascar9 and that land bridges provided the migrants’ passage5, 6, 7, 8. Here we show that currents could have transported the animals to the island and highlight evidence inconsistent with the land-bridge hypothesis. Using palaeogeographic reconstructions and palaeo-oceanographic modelling, we find that strong surface currents flowed from northeast Mozambique and Tanzania eastward towards Madagascar during the Palaeogene period, exactly as required by the ‘sweepstakes process’. Subsequently, Madagascar advanced north towards the equatorial gyre and the regional current system evolved into its modern configuration with flows westward10 from Madagascar to Africa. This may explain why no fully non-aquatic land mammals have colonized Madagascar since the arrival of the rodents and carnivorans during the early-Miocene epoch. One implication is that rafting may be the dominant means of overseas dispersal in the Cenozoic era when palaeocurrent directions are properly considered.
Date of this Version
2010
DOI
10.1038/nature08706
Repository Citation
Ali, Jason R. and Huber, Matthew, "Mammalian biodiversity on Madagascar controlled by ocean currents" (2010). Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Faculty Publications. Paper 18.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature08706
Volume
463
Issue
7281
Pages
653-656
Link Out to Full Text
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v463/n7281/full/nature08706.html