Rafting event

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.cite book | last = Mittermeier | first = R.A. | coauthors = et al. | authorlink = Russell Mittermeier | title = Lemurs of Madagascar | edition = 2nd Edition | publisher = Conservation International | year = 2006 | pages = 24-26 | isbn=1-881173-88-7] Within the order Primates, this is thought to have happened twice. According to genetic evidence, the common ancestor of the lemurs of Madagascar appears to have crossed the Mozambique Channel by rafting sometime between the late Cretaceous and the middle Eocene.cite journal | first = Christian | last = Roos | coauthors = Schmitz, Jürgen, & Zischler, Hans | title = Primate jumping genes elucidate strepsirrhine phylogeny | journal = PNAS | date = July 2004 | volume = 101 | pages = 10650-10654 | url = http://www.pnas.org/content/101/29/10650.full.pdf | format = PDF] cite web | url = http://homepage.mac.com/wis/Personal/lectures/human-origins/PrimateEvolution.pdf | title = Primate Evolution | accessdate = 2008-10-23 | last = Sellers | first = Bill | date = 2000-10-20 | format = PDF | publisher = University of Edinburgh | pages = 13-17] Likewise, the New World monkeys are thought to have originated in Africa and rafted to South America during the Oligocene, when the continents were much closer than they are today.

See also

* Allopatric speciation

References