Northern Highlands

This article is about the region of Madagascar. See Northern Highlands Regional High School for the high school in New Jersey.

The Northern Highlands are a mountainous biogeographical region of northern Madagascar. The region includes the Tsaratanana Massif (with the highest mountain of Madagascar, Maromokotro) and smaller nearby massifs such as Marojejy, Anjanaharibe-Sud, and Manongarivo.^[1] The Mandritsara Window separates the Northern from the Central Highlands and apparently acts as a barrier to dispersal between the two highlands, leading to species pairs such as Voalavo gymnocaudus (Northern Highlands) and Voalavo antsahabensis (Central Highlands).^[2] None of the montane endemics of Tsaratanana are shared with the major massifs of the Central Highlands.^[3]

References

1. ^ Goodman et al., 2006, p. 395
2. ^ Goodman et al., 2005, p. 872
3. ^ Raxworthy and Nussbaum, 1998, table 2

Literature cited

• Goodman, S.M., Rakotondravony, D., Randriamanantsoa, H.N. and Rakotomalala-Razanahoera, M. 2005. A new species of rodent from the montane forest of central eastern Madagascar (Muridae: Nesomyinae: Voalavo). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 118(4):863–873.
• Goodman, S.M., Raxworthy, C.J., Maminirina, C.P. and Olson, L.E. 2006. A new species of shrew tenrec (Microgale jobihely) from northern Madagascar. Journal of Zoology 270:384–398.
• Raxworthy, C.J. and Nussbaum, R.A. 1996. Montane amphibian and reptile communities in Madagascar (subscription required). Conservation Biology 10(3):750–756.

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