On the origins of Madagascan and Seychellian eumastacids

Abstract

Recent palaeo-oceanographic work (Ali & Huber 1910) shows that strong surface currents existed from the East Africa coast to Madagascar and beyond in the Palaeogene, making the rafting of masses of African vegetation possible during this period. Source Euschmidtiinae are common on the East African coast. The only African relative of the Miraculinae is the chorotypid genus Hemierianthus of West and Central Africa. This leads to the hypothesis that the Miraculinae are closer to the Chorotypidae than to the Episactidae, as suggested by Descamps (1973), which is testable by molecular systematic methods.