The animated movie Madagascar - which featured a group of zoo animals hitching a boat ride to the African island - was not so far- fetched after all. The island’s exotic wild mammals are descended from sea-faring ancestors who sailed from mainland Africa on natural rafts 50 million years ago. Scientists say the prevailing currents at the time would have made the 500 km trip not only possible, but relatively fast too. Madagascar is home to an extraordinary collection of animals found nowhere else in the world. They include fossas - which resemble a cross between cats and dogs, 70 types of lemurs, flying foxes and narrow striped mongooses. A team led by Prof Matthew Huber at Purdue University, Indiana, used computer models to simulate ocean currents millions of years ago. They found that 20 to 60 million years, currents flowed eastwards from Africa to Madagascar. The mammals are likely to have been swept out to sea on trees or mats of vegetation during tropical storms. Most would have perished at sea, but some would have been washed ashore on Madagascar.
