Madagascar: Africa's Galapagos

It's the 10th of May 1836, Charles Darwin leans on the beaten wooden gunwale of The Beagle. He's yet to start writing his "Origin of the Species", but he's already forming his theories about evolution. Locations like the Galapagos islands had a huge impact on him, but as he looks upon the jungled coastline of Madagascar, he has no idea what he's missing out on. Darwin never did stop on Madagascar. Of all the visits he SHOULD have made, it's this one. The oldest, and in terms of evolution, the weirdest island on the face of Earth. The Beagle passed so close to its shoreline that it rose and fell on the swell rising on its reefs. From the cover of the dark jungle, freakish creatures could have watched as the fabled ship disappeared onto the Indian Ocean horizon. Would Charles Darwin have adjusted his conclusions on adaptation if he'd wandered these forests? He may have if he'd met this list of creatures.—Earth Touch