When India Was An Island

We need to talk about the biggest break-up of all-time: the break-up of the supercontinent Pangea, and how, ultimately, when India smashed back into Asia, it traded one form of evolutionary isolation for another.

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References:

[eons]

Hey y'all! We want to clear up some confusion one of our timeline graphics created about when placental mammals evolved:

India and Madagascar broke away from Africa sometime 120-100 mya, then Madagascar split off around 90 mya and India was on its own. The oldest placental mammal fossils we've found date to right around or just after the K-Pg mass extinction, ~66 mya, and, while there are a variety of estimates for the exact range of dates, molecular studies tend to put the origin of placentals sometime in the Late Cretaceous (100.5-66 mya). This would mean they originate after India broke away from Africa, which is the point we were making in this episode.

[futuristica]

Animals on India for millions of years: “are we there yet?”

[takenname]

Teasing the Himalayas like that is a great cliff hanger!

[webshock]

Thanks for not adding indian classical music as background score. Honestly appreciate it for not falling into stereotype magma.

[shehan]

Sri Lanka & India best travel buddies ever!

[notoriousbigmoai]

Before the discovery of tectonic plates, scientists thought that there was a sunken landmass between India and Madagascar called Lemuria because there were Lemurs in Madagascar but not Africa, and there were also Lemurs in India.

[dteyoyh]

You are right
The western ghats of india are remnants of the central highlands of Madagascar . Many flora & fauna in here have closer relationship with their Malagasy counterparts.
😉😉😉😉😉 .
Combining with the Deccan plateau & the eastern ghats it helps in preserving the unique landscape of Peninsular India .

[gibospartan]

Just watching the continents move is fascinating. India left Madagascar behind but dragged Seychelles almost half way before it too got left behind, yet Sri Lanka seemingly held on. Crazy to think that they were once so close together.

[kendrickbritto]

🇳🇵 🇧🇹 : what a lovely day at the beach
🇮🇳: continent go brrrr

[Rishi]

India is distinct not just culturally, but even geologically. Also, my most favourite tectonic plate is the Indo-Australian Plate.

[jarrodkopf]

Should have mentioned how India's isolation played a big role in creating one of the longest snakes in the world, Vasuki indicus.

[GiornoGiovanna-ykfp]

I'm a Japanese person who wants to do research on mammals.
I didn't know much about Indian mammals, but thanks to this video I gained new knowledge. thank you

[BinroWasRight]

What excellent timing for this one! Especially with the ancient Indian mega-snake Vasuki indicus recently described. It seems to have ruled insular India during the Eocene.

[yashabbus]

You just summoned the whole indian island now.

[MayankTrivedi-bgdg]

I am an ethnic Kumaoni, our kind live in hills of Himalayas. The biodiveristy of our place is outstanding. The rivers of Ganges originate from our place, the river ecosystems provide beauty unparalleled from any other place on earth. Warblers, Himalayan bearded vulture, certain kinds of changeable hawk eagle are just few kind of birds who call this place a habitat. This video was really enjoyable for me. Thanks for this post dear😁🤧

[theascendunt]

As a Sri Lankan, I always wanted to learn about this more.

It's crazy to see that our island was a separate entity from all those years ago, before pretty much all other countries were glued-together blobs.

[GinoBrand]

I remember reading my geography book 20yrs back in school about this. And from then on, I’ve always called India the sub continent.

[agrajag]

I love how excited the narrator is about the subject.

[tec-jones]

Insular India is so underrated in terms of it's unique biota, and the role it played in the evolution/survival of many species! Some of these include:

-Avashishta, possibly the last surviving non-mammal synapsid on Earth, living at the end of the Cretaceous.
-"Deltapodus" a fossil trackman of a possible Cretaceous stegosaur (still disputed)
-Lagomorphs (rabbits and pikas), which may have come from Asia and got their evolutionary start in India, like cetaceans.
-Vasuki, an madtsoiid from the Eocene, ranking with Titanoboa as among the largest snakes to ever exist.

[soubhagya]

A former PM of India once said, you can choose your friends but not neighbours.
As an East Indian, who was once neighbouring Antarctica, now has bay of Bengal on my neighbourhood.