Continental DriftMadagascar didn't always sit isolated in the Indian Ocean. For about 520 million years, it was attached to the other landmasses of Earth as part of a supercontinent called Gondwana. About 150 million years ago, Gondwana began to split apart into the continents of the southern hemisphere. Look at the animation and timeline below to see how it split apart.
Madagascar has been in almost the same position for 124 million years, which has allowed environments a long period of time to develop without the dramatic climatic changes associated with radical changes in latitude.
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