For Immediate Release Contact: Greg Borzo (312) 665-7100 (For Media Use Only) gborzo@fieldmuseum.org One reason Madagascar’s mammals could have survived a long voyage over the open sea without food or water might be that many of them have the ability to hibernate or maintain a state of torpor for long periods, the authors note. “This study will shed light on other questions of mammal dispersals elsewhere, such as how monkeys and rodents got from Africa to South America some 35 million or more years ago, when the two continents were separated by an immense water barrier,” Flynn says. Determining how, when, and from where Madagascar’s unique biota got to the island is “one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of natural history, for the simple reason that the Malagasy fossil record is virtually non-existent for the last 65 million years,” says David Krause, Professor of anatomical sciences at Stony Brook University. “The discovery of a single African origin of Malagasy carnivorans is stunning and exciting, and a fine example of how scientists have gone the extra mile to devise innovative means to address and solve a previously intractable question.” Study sheds light on Madagascar’s biodiversity today The carnivorans living in Madagascar today are commonly known as the fossa (resembling a puma), falanouc, Malagasy striped civet, and four kinds of Malagasy mongooses (resembling a ferret). The study shows that all these animals descended from a mongoose-like animal from Africa and are closely related to true mongooses living in Africa today. African hyenas are the next closest relatives to this group of African mongooses and Madagascar carnivorans. The scientific classification above the genus level for many of these groups of animals will need to be changed to reflect their new places on the evolutionary tree identified during this study. Flynn, Yoder and Steven Goodman, Nature paper co-author and Field Biologist at the Field Museum, are preparing another paper focusing on these issues. Continue