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Gondwanan tomato soup
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. + + + 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.] 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. |
#2
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Gondwanan tomato soup
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 |
#3
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Gondwanan tomato soup
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. "P van Rijckevorsel" wrote: 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 Phred schreef 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. + + + That seems to be the consensus opinion. However Didieraceae ('Madagascar cacti') contains some four genera with ca ten species, not just the one species. These should all be pretty weird-looking. PvR |
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