An Introduction
Madagascar is globally recognized as a megadiversity country and a biodiversity hot spot. First, biodiversity is not evenly distributed among the nations of the world. Only seventeen countries, including the island nation of Madagascar, hold about 75% of the worlds' species. Second, over 80% of the species living on the island are endemic, evolving in essential isolation over the past 50-60 million years prior to the arrival of humans about 2000 years ago. Sixteen types of natural ecosystems, from lowland rain forests to spiny deserts, are recognized in
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