63mya Prosimians

AYE-AYE, LEMURS, BUSHBABIES.

A common ancestry with our prosimian cousins: the lemurs, pottos, bushbabies, and lorises and strange lemurs (Aye Ayes) which are only found on the island of Madagascar. Madagascar was originally part of the Gondwana supercontinent which included present Africa continent and Indian subcontinent. Gondwana broke off into drifting blocks of land, some of which became Africa, India and Madagascar. As an estranged island, Madagascar became a speciation hotbed. For instance a small founding population of strepsirrhine primates (possibly rafted in from neighboring continent) flourished and diversified into all niches of the ecosystem, in the absence of monkeys. The story reminds us how Madagascar, with a land mass 1/1000 of Earth's total land area, ends up housing unique species that account for 4% of all species of animals and plants.