In article , "P van Rijckevorsel" wrote:
Beverly Erlebacher schreef
This is in the context of Madagascar which has two dozen endemic
Solanum spp, but was separated from Africa and the rest of Gondwanaland
before the development of flowering plants.

P van Rijckevorsel wrote:
This is not right. We are talking late Cretaceous?

[Unfortunately I do not have the exact facts ready at my fingertips, and
with some people picking up on even the least inaccuracy I am not going
beyond that.]

=======
Beverly Erlebacher schreef
I don't recall the exact dates either, but IIRC, Madagascar and India
broke off of pre-Africa Gondwanaland around 160 or 180 Mya, while the
south Atlantic Ocean didn't open up until the late Cretaceous.

+ + +
A browse through the net shows that the net is dominated by Scorcese, so
let's hope he knows his stuff. The best representation I can dig up at short
order is:

http://earth.leeds.ac.uk/~greg/Gond.html

which shows the difference between the Africa-Madagascar breakup and the
Madagascar-India break-up, which leaves plenty of opportunity for flowering
plants to reach Madagascar in the Cretaceous

One of the big differences I noticed between the thorn-veldt of S.
Africa and a similar low vegetation in SW Madagascar was the
relative absence of thorny species in the latter superficially similar
looking communtities. (With the notable exception of the strange
_Didieria madagascariensis_ !)

As a top of the head interpretation, I assumed it was the lack of the
typical African grazing herds in Madagascar that resulted in a much
more friendly vegetation for collectors in shorts. :-)


Cheers, Phred.

--
LID