Some 135 million years ago, gradual but enormous forces broke apart the supercontinent Gondwana, and a landmass consisting of present-day Madagascar, India, Antarctica, and Australia drifted away from Africa. Then, around 47 million years later, Madagascar broke away from India and settled itself off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. For the last 88 million years, life on Madagascar has been on its own, an island of evolutionary oddities that includes the family of lemurs.
The inescapable outcome of this geographic event and the resulting isolation is that ninety percent of the island’s fauna and flora are endemic, with phenomenal biodiversity unlike anything else on the planet. The island is very large and its environment is extremely diverse. The island is home to over 300 recorded species of birds (60% of which are endemic) and 260 species of reptile – including two-thirds of the world’s chameleon species. Yet it is the primate species of Madagascar – the lemurs – that are the island’s real “flagship” species. The IUCN currently recognizes 107 species of lemurs. The lemurs of Madagascar have evolved with the island, influencing the plant life, and filling every available niche to for an astoundingly diverse superfamily of multitudinous shapes and sizes.
