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How Did They Get There?
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There
are many theories about how tenrecs came to Madagascar. We know that they
weren’t on Madagascar when it separated from India. As far as scientists
can tell none of the mammals living in Madagascar today are closely
related to creatures that lived there when it broke off. So that means
that tenrecs arrived when Madagascar was an island, and traveled across a
large expanse of ocean. How could such a small creature travel so far?
Tenrecs most likely came from Africa, the closest landmass, because they
have similar relatives there. Still, Madagascar is roughly 400km off the
coast of Africa.
One
theory is that natural rafts were used. A tree could have fallen into the
sea after a storm, and been washed onto the shore of Madagascar, carrying
a tenrec the entire way. This would be a one in a million occurrence
though, and only a few tenrecs would have lived to cultivate Madagascar.
This theory is plausible, because the ancestors of tenrecs could have had
similar traits to the tenrecs of today. They could have been cold-blooded,
and they could have been able to have large litters.
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