Biogeography and ecology of the ant fauna of Madagascar (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Widespread basalts and rhyolites were erupted in Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous. These are considered to be related to the Marion hot spot and the breakup of Madagascar and Greater India. Seventeen argon-40/argon-39 age determinations reveal that volcanic rocks and dikes from the 1500-kilometer-long rifted eastern margin of Madagascar were emplaced rapidly (mean age = 87.6 +/- 0.6 million years ago) and that the entire duration of Cretaceous volcanism on the island was no more than 6 million years. The evidence suggests that the thick lava pile at Volcan de l'Androy in the south of the island marks the focal point of the Marion hot spot at approximately 88 million years ago and that this mantle plume was instrumental in causing continental breakup.

Identification of a sequence of east-west trending magnetic anomalies of Mesozoic age in the western Somali Basin helps define the position of Madagascar in the Gondwana reconstruction. The anomalies are symmetric about ancient ridge segments and are flanked to the north and south by the Jurassic magnetic quiet zone. The motion of Madagascar relative to Africa was from the north and began in the middle Jurassic, about the same time as the initial breakup of Gondwanaland. Sea-floor spreading ceased when Madagascar assumed its present position in the Early Cretaceous.