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Rafting events occur when organisms transfer from one land mass to another by way of a sea crossing on large clumps of floating vegetation. Such matted clumps of vegetation are often seen floating down major rivers in the tropics and washing out to sea, occasionally with animals trapped on them. Within the order Primate
Primate

A primate is a member of the biological order Primates , the group that contains lemurs, the Aye-aye, Lorisidaes, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, with the last category including humans....
s, this is thought to have happened twice. According to genetic evidence, the common ancestor of the lemur
Lemur

Lemurs make up the infraorder Lemuriformes and are members of a group of primates known as prosimians. The term "lemur" is derived from the Latin word lemures, meaning "spirits of the night" or "ghosts"....
s of Madagascar
Madagascar

Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the List of islands by area, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are Endemism to Madagascar....
 appears to have crossed the Mozambique Channel
Mozambique Channel

The Mozambique Channel is a portion of the Indian Ocean between the island of Madagascar and southeast Africa, namely Mozambique. It was a World War II clashpoint during the Battle of Madagascar....
 by rafting sometime between the late Cretaceous
Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
 and the middle Eocene
Eocene

The Eocene Geologic time scale is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era....
.






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Rafting events occur when organisms transfer from one land mass to another by way of a sea crossing on large clumps of floating vegetation. Such matted clumps of vegetation are often seen floating down major rivers in the tropics and washing out to sea, occasionally with animals trapped on them. Within the order Primate
Primate

A primate is a member of the biological order Primates , the group that contains lemurs, the Aye-aye, Lorisidaes, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, with the last category including humans....
s, this is thought to have happened twice. According to genetic evidence, the common ancestor of the lemur
Lemur

Lemurs make up the infraorder Lemuriformes and are members of a group of primates known as prosimians. The term "lemur" is derived from the Latin word lemures, meaning "spirits of the night" or "ghosts"....
s of Madagascar
Madagascar

Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the List of islands by area, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are Endemism to Madagascar....
 appears to have crossed the Mozambique Channel
Mozambique Channel

The Mozambique Channel is a portion of the Indian Ocean between the island of Madagascar and southeast Africa, namely Mozambique. It was a World War II clashpoint during the Battle of Madagascar....
 by rafting sometime between the late Cretaceous
Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
 and the middle Eocene
Eocene

The Eocene Geologic time scale is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era....
. Likewise, the New World monkey
New World monkey

New World monkeys are the four families of primates that are found in Central America and South America: Cebidae, Aotidae, Pitheciidae and Atelidae....
s are thought to have originated in Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
 and rafted to South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
 during the Oligocene
Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Geologic Timescale and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present....
, when the continents were much closer than they are today.

In reptiles, two iguanid species
Brachylophus

The genus Brachylophus consists of three Extant taxon iguanid species native to the islands of Fiji and Tonga in the Oceania....
 in the South Pacific are believed to have descended from South American green iguana
Green Iguana

The green iguana or common iguana is a large, arboreal herbivory species of lizard of the genus Iguana native to Central America and South America....
s about 13 million years ago.

See also

  • Allopatric speciation
    Allopatric speciation

    Allopatric and allopatry are terms from biogeography, referring to organisms whose ranges are entirely separate, so that they do not occur in any one place together....
  • Island hopping
    Island hopping

    Island hopping is a term that has several different definitions as it is applied in various fields. Generally, the term refers to the means of crossing an ocean by a series of shorter journeys between islands, as opposed to a single journey directly across the ocean to the destination....
  • Biological dispersal
    Biological dispersal

    Biological dispersal refers to a species movement away from an existing population or away from the parent organism. Through simply moving from one habitat patch to another, the dispersal of an individual has consequences not only for individual fitness, but also for population dynamics, population genetics, and species distribution....