The subcontinent of Madagascar off southeastern Africa is hot spot of biodiversity, where plants and animals evolved differently than any place else in the world. When humans arrived some 2000 years ago mass extinctions followed. Now scientists have discovered a trove of fossils that could reveal a vanished ecology.
In a cave, 130 feet below the floor of the ocean off Madagascar, scientists have found hundreds of bones of extinct animals -- lemurs the size of gorillas and elephant birds. Science writer Brian Switek blogs about fossils at National Geographic. He's also author of My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science and Our Favorite Dinosaurs.