Madagascar separated from the Indian subcontinent about 88 million years ago.
The island was once part of Gondwana, the ancient southern supercontinent. Madagascar first became separated from Africa and later broke away from the landmass that included India during the Late Cretaceous. Plate tectonics carried the island into its present position in the western Indian Ocean.
This long geographic isolation produced extraordinary biodiversity. Most of Madagascar’s native species are endemic, meaning they occur nowhere else naturally. Lemurs are the best-known example, but the island also has distinctive chameleons, fossas, baobabs, and many plant species.
Madagascar is the world’s fourth-largest island. It is often called the “eighth continent” in popular writing because of its unique wildlife, although it is geographically and politically considered an island rather than a continent.