Several

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

iferous

stratigraphic unit A stratigraphic unit is a volume of rock of identifiable origin and relative age range that is defined by the distinctive and dominant, easily mapped and recognizable petrographic, lithologic or paleontologic features (facies) that characterize ...

s in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

have provided fossils, most notably the

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval ...

Maevarano Formation The Maevarano Formation is a Late Cretaceous sedimentary rock formation found in the Mahajanga Province of northwestern Madagascar. It is most likely Maastrichtian in age, and records a seasonal, semiarid environment with rivers that had greatly v ...

and the

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

Isalo III Formation. The oldest fossil-bearing formations date to ages before the break-up of Madagascar from

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

; the units of the Sakoa Group are found in both India and Madagascar, while the

Beaufort Group The Beaufort Group is the third of the main subdivisions of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa. It is composed of a lower Adelaide Subgroup and an upper Tarkastad Subgroup. It follows conformably after the Ecca Group and unconformably underli ...

is shared with southern Africa. __NOTOC__

References

* O. Appert. 1977. Die Glossopteris flora der Sakoa in Sudwest-Madagaskar. Palaeontographica Abteilung B 162:1-50 * * L. R. Cox. 1936. Karroo Lamellibranchia from Tanganyika Territory and Madagascar. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 92(365):32-56 * A. A. Farke and J. J. W. Sertich. 2013. An abelisauroid theropod dinosaur from the Turonian of Madagascar. PLoS ONE 8(4):e62047 * M. D. Gottfried, R. R. Rogers, and K. A. Curry Rogers. 2004. First record of Late Cretaceous coelacanths from Madagascar. Recent Advances in the Origin and Early Radiation of Vertebrates, in G. Arratia, M. V. H. Wilson, and R. Cloutier (eds.), Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, München 687-691 * M. D. Gottfried, J. A. Rabarison, and L. L. Randriamiarimanana. 2001. Late Cretaceous elasmobranchs from the Mahajanga Basin of Madagascar. Cretaceous Research 22:491-496 * N. J. Mateer, P. Wycisk, L. L. Jacobs, M. Brunet, P. Luger, M. A. Arush, F. Hendriks, T. WEissbrod, G. Gvirtzman, E. Mbede, A. Dina, R. T. J. Moody, G. Weigelt, H. A. El-Nakhal, J. Hell and J. Stets. 1992. Correlation of nonmarine Cretaceous strata of Africa and the Middle East. Cretaceous Research 13:273-318 * J. M. Mazin and G. M. King. 1991. The first dicynodont from the

Late Permian Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

of Malagasy. Palaeontology 34(4):837-842 * R. Paulian. 1965. Découverte d’une faune entomologique permienne à Madagascar. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris 260:4028-4030 * C. Dal Sasso and G. Pasini. 2003. First record of pterosaurs (Diapsida, Archosauromorpha, Pterosauria) in the Middle Jurassic of Madagascar. Atti della Societa Italiana di Scienze Naturali e del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale in Milano 144:281-296 * * * E. I. White. 1932. On a new Triassic fish from North-east Madagascar. Journal of Natural History 10:80-83 {{Fossiliferous stratigraphic units of Africa

Fossiliferous stratigraphic units

Fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

See also

References

Further reading