Birds of Madagascar
The Natural History of Madagascar
Separated from Africa 165 million years ago — Madagascar's extraordinary isolation created one of the most unique bird faunas on Earth.
Origins
The Origin
Separated from Africa mainland some 165 million years ago, Madagascar has acquired its shape and position about 130 million years ago. Birds appeared on Earth about 70 million years ago and started populating the island. As Madagascar is surrounded by large ocean, the isolation is quite obvious and the level of endemism of its wildlife and birdlife has consequently become very high.
Prehistory
The Ancient Bird Fossils
One of these early Malagasy fossils was called Vorona berivotrensis. This animal was supposed to have lived from 84 to 70 million years ago and, although the fossil remains are fragmentary, they show a mixture of primitive and modern birds.
Another of these ancient creatures from the Berivotra deposits is Rahonavis ostromi. He was probably able to fly, but would have been clumsier in the air than most modern birds. Cretaceous fossils have revealed ancestral forms of birds with five taxa including Rahonavis ostromis that existed 80 million years ago and have been found close to Archeopteryx.
Recent Geology
Subfossils of Birds
Madagascar possesses subfossil deposits relatively rich in recent Pleistocene and Holocene birds. The oldest subfossil bird of Madagascar is probably no more than 20,000 years old and is therefore very recent. More than 70 species have been identified from these subfossil remains.
Families of Aepyornithidae, Phalacrocoracidae, Accipitridae, Mesitornithidae, Rallidae, Charadriidae and Brachypteraciidae may be mentioned. The famous Elephant Birds (Aepyornithidae), unique to Madagascar, include at least four known species, all of which are now extinct. The legendary elephant birds were still alive in human memory in the 17th century.
The Subfossil Elephant Bird
Aepyornis maximus — the Elephant Bird — was the world's largest known bird, standing up to 3 metres tall and weighing up to 730 kg. It went extinct around the 17th–18th century, likely due to human hunting and habitat destruction. Its eggs, the largest laid by any known vertebrate, are still occasionally found in Madagascar.
Today
Modern Birds
Among the 282 known bird species on the island, 120 are endemic and 82 are migratory. There are several endemic orders, families or subfamilies of birds in Madagascar.
Apart from the courol (Leptosomiformes), the last representative of an order that was once widespread, these groups have developed and diversified in situ — such as mesites, ground-rollers, asities, bernieras (a family recently created on the basis of genetic studies), and vangas (Vangidae). The vangas offer an example of evolutionary radiation as spectacular as that of Darwin's famous finches in the Galápagos.
Within the same family of birds, aspects and extremely diverse behaviours can be found. The Bernieridae and Vangidae are the two richest families in species among the Madagascar passerines.
Scientific Source: Wikipedia
Natural History of the Fauna of Madagascar
Discover Living History in the Field
Observe endemic families that have evolved in isolation for millions of years.