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Geological history played a major role in shaping the island's bountiful ecosystem. When Madagascar separated from what became India tens of millions of years ago many plants and animals followed their own evolutionary path.

Ninety-nine percent of the island's frogs are endemic. Lemurs, the oldest living family of primates, live only on Madagascar, as do 100 percent of the island's mammals, aside from bats. In comparison, only about 30 percent of land mammals are endemic to Borneo, a tropical island about the same size.

		This One's For the Birds Nelicourvi Weavers, Velvet Asities, Yellow-Bellied Sundbird-Asities, Spectacled Greenbuls and more.
		Bugs Photogallery: Creepy-Crawly Things on the Forest Floor Pictures of scorpions, spiders, bettles, weevils, grasshoppers, millipedes --- and land crabs.
		Island Frogs A photogallery of giant-toed, bright-eyed, mottled-colored, forest-dwelling hoppers.
		Island Reptiles: More Creepy-Crawly Things Photographs of snakes, chameleons and more.
		Raselimanana's Chameleon A chameleon found on a forest branch may belong to a new species.
		Video of Raselimanana's Chameleon