Though Gondwana was still intact in the beginning of the Cretaceous, it broke up as South America, Antarctica and Australia rifted away from Africa ( though India and Madagascar remained attached to each other ); thus, the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans were newly formed.

In 1985 Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles agreed to admit Comoros as the fourth member of the Indian Ocean Commission ( IOC ), an organization established in 1982 to encourage regional cooperation.

The Dodo ( Raphus cucullatus ) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

The island hosts introduced bird species from many different regions, including Cattle Egrets ( Bubulcus ibis ), Indian Barred Ground Dove, also called the Zebra Dove ( Geopelia striata ), Turtle Dove ( Streptopleia picturata ), Indian Mynah ( Acridotheres tristis ), Madagascar Fody ( Foudia madagascariensis ), and chickens ( Gallus gallus ).

# Crozet Islands (), a group in the southern Indian Ocean, south of Madagascar ;

This allowed Indonesian peoples to cross the Indian Ocean to settle in Madagascar.

Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar ( ; ) and previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the southeastern coast of Africa.

Madagascar was an important transoceanic trading hub connecting ports of the Indian Ocean in the early centuries following human settlement.

Madagascar historically has remained outside the mainstream of African affairs, although it is a member of the Indian Ocean Commission, the Organization of African Unity ( now renamed the AU ) and the Non-Aligned Movement.

The Mozambique Channel is a portion of the Indian Ocean located between the island nation of Madagascar and southeast Africa, primarily the country of Mozambique.

Réunion is an island in Southern Africa, in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar.

Tromelin Island (;, ) is a low, flat, island in the Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar ( geographic coordinates: ).

V. fragrans ), grown on Madagascar, Réunion, and other tropical areas along the Indian Ocean ; V. tahitensis, grown in the South Pacific ; and V. pompona, found in the West Indies, and Central and South America.

The majority of the world's vanilla is the V. planifolia variety, more commonly known as Bourbon vanilla ( after the former name of Réunion, Île Bourbon ) or Madagascar vanilla, which is produced in Madagascar and neighboring islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean, and in Indonesia.

* Bourbon vanilla or Bourbon-Madagascar vanilla, produced from V. planifolia plants introduced from the Americas, is the term used for vanilla from Indian Ocean islands such as Madagascar, the Comoros, and Réunion, formerly the Île Bourbon.

* 1178: Chinese writer Zhou Qufei, a Guangzhou customs officer, writes of an island far west in the Indian Ocean ( possibly Madagascar ), from where people with skin " as black as lacquer " and with frizzy hair were captured and purchased as slaves by Arab merchants.

In the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, one of Cabral's ships discovered Madagascar ( 1501 ), which was partly explored by Tristão da Cunha ( 1507 ); Mauritius was discovered in 1507, Socotra occupied in 1506, and in the same year Lourenço de Almeida visited Ceylon.

Madagascar is an island in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of southern Africa, east of Mozambique.

The majority of the population of Madagascar today is a mixture of Austronesian, North Indian, Arab, Somali and Bantu settlers from Southeast Asia, Gujarat, the Arabian Peninsula, Somalia and East Africa, respectively.

Meanwhile, with competition in the new joint Chinese and South Indian naval powers, Song and Chola, the thalassocracies of Indonesia were in rapid decline, though the Portuguese still encountered Javanese sailors in Madagascar in the.

The island's West clan chiefs began to extend their power through trade with their Indian Ocean neighbors, first with Arab, Persian and Somali traders who connected Madagascar with East Africa, the Middle East and India, and later with European slave traders.

Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar

Ambergris can be found in the Atlantic Ocean and on the coasts of Brazil, Madagascar, the East Indies, The Maldives, China, Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the Molucca islands.

The Seychelles is a small island nation located in the Indian Ocean northeast of Madagascar and about east of Kenya.

Réunion (, ; previously Île Bourbon ) is a French island with a population of about 800, 000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.

Malagasy, a geographic outlier spoken in Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, is also a member of this language family.

* Lemuria ( continent ), name given by 19th century geologist Philip Sclater to a land mass in the Indian Ocean that was required, before the understanding of plate tectonics, to account for similarities between fauna in India and Madagascar

Over the centuries, the Comoro Islands were settled by a succession of diverse groups from the coast of Africa, the Persian Gulf, Indonesia, and Madagascar.

193-Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, People's Republic of China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d ' Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, European Union, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, North Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

parties-( 38 ) Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Finland, France, Haiti, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela

* Madagascar claims Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands and Juan de Nova Island

# the Scattered Islands (), a dispersed group of islands around the coast of Madagascar.

The Glorieuses or Glorioso Islands ( or officially also Archipel des Glorieuses ) are a group of French islands and rocks totalling, at, in the northern Mozambique channel, about northwest of Madagascar.

Examples are Madagascar and Socotra off Africa ; New Zealand ; New Caledonia ; the Kerguelen Islands ; and some of the Seychelles.

Until 1955, the Kerguelen Islands were part of the French colony of Madagascar.

A line from the estuary of the River Rovuma () to Ras Habu, the Northern point of Ile Grande Comore, the Northern of the Comore ( Comoro ) Islands, to Cap d ' Ambre ( Amber ) the Northern extremity of Madagascar ().

The UNCCD has 194 country Parties: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, the People's Republic of China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d ' Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, European Union, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, the Republic of Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Soon, the tropical orchids were sent from Réunion Island to the Comoros Islands and Madagascar, along with instructions for pollinating them.

By 1898, Madagascar, Réunion, and the Comoros Islands produced 200 metric tons of vanilla beans, about 80 % of world production.

In addition, Raeder and other senior officers submitted memos calling for Germany to annex Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, Greenland, the Azores, the Canary Islands, the Cocos Islands, Aden, Socotra, the Comoros, Madagascar, the Mauritius, Ceylon ( modern Sri Lanka ) and, if possible, the Dutch East Indies ( through Raeder and other admirals conceded the Dutch East Indies would probably have to go to Japan in the interests of Axis solidarity ).

Map of Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands ( 1502 )

With the arrival of Islam, Persian and Arab traders soon supplanted the Indonesians on the coast of Africa and eventually extended their control over the Comoros Islands and parts of the coast of Madagascar.

This fact would require a starting common home among the Proto-Malagasy vahoaka ntaolo ( gone west to Madagascar ) and the ancestors of the current Polynesians ( left for the Pacific Islands in the East ) between 500 BC – 0.

It is cultivated in the tropics and subtropics throughout the world, including the Canary Islands, Ghana, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Zanzibar, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, India, Java, Hawaii, and Australia.

It used to be said that boas are found in the New World and pythons in the Old World, but with boid species present in Madagascar, Fiji and the Solomon Islands, this is not quite accurate ; instead, it seems that they have survived in evolutionarily isolated areas.