Madagascar's celebrated land-vertebrate assemblage has long been studied and discussed. How the ancestors of the 30 different lineages arrived on the island, which has existed since 85 Mya and is separated from neighboring Africa by 430 km of water, is a deeply important question. Did the colonizations take place when the landmass formed part of Gondwana, or did they occur later and involve either now-drowned causeways or overwater dispersal (on vegetation rafts or by floating/swimming)? Following a historical review, we appraise the geological–geophysical evidence and the faunal-suite colonization record. Twenty-six of the clades are explained by temporally stochastic overwater dispersals, spanning 69–0 Mya, while two others are considered Gondwanan vicariant relicts. Due to a lack of information, the remaining two groups cannot be evaluated. The findings thus appear to resolve a debate that has rumbled along, with sporadic eruptions, since the mid-1800s.

中文翻译：

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陆桥和漂流理论解释马达加斯加陆生脊椎动物生物多样性


马达加斯加著名的陆地脊椎动物组合长期以来一直受到研究和讨论。30 个不同血统的祖先是如何到达这个自 85 Mya 以来一直存在的岛屿，与邻国非洲相隔 430 公里的水，这是一个非常重要的问题。殖民是发生在陆地成为冈瓦纳的一部分时，还是发生得更晚，涉及现已淹没的堤道或水上扩散（在植被筏上或通过漂浮/游泳）？在历史回顾之后，我们评估了地质-地球物理证据和动物群-套房定植记录。其中 26 个分支由时间随机水上扩散解释，跨越 69-0 Mya，而另外两个被认为是冈瓦纳维卡里亚特遗迹。由于缺乏信息，无法评估其余两组。因此，这些发现似乎解决了自 1800 年代中期以来一直轰隆作响、零星喷发的争论。