Galapagos islands are located in Pasific Ocean where two plate meets. The Nazca Plate is diving under South America Plate in there and this situation causes volcanic activities in this area so this is caused Galpagos hot spots in Pasific Ocean where west of South America Continent. The group consists of 13 main islands, 3 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The islands are located at the Galapagos Triple Junction. The archipelago is located on the Nazca Plate (a tectonic plate), which is moving east/southeast, diving under the South American Plate at a rate of about 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) per year. It is also atop the Galapagos hotspot, a place where the Earth's crust is being melted from below by a mantle plume, creating volcanoes. The first islands formed here at least 8 million and possibly up to 90 million years ago. Mid-oceans ridges are located at the edges of plates moving away from one and other. One such mid-ocean ridge, the Galapagos Spreading Center, is located just north of the Galapagos archipelago. Mid-ocean ridges are often offset by fracture zones or transform faults. One of the best known is the Galapagos tortoise, which lives on seven of the islands. It has an average lifespan of more than 150 years.
The Marine Iguana is also extremely unusual, since it is the only iguana adapted to life in the water. Land iguanas, lava lizards, geckos and other harmless snakes can also be found in the Islands. The large number and range of birds is also of interest to scientists and tourists. Around 56 varieties live in the archipelago, of which 27 are found only in the Galápagos. Some of these are found only on one island.
The most outstanding are penguins, which live on the colder coasts, Darwin's finches, frigatebirds, albatrosses, gulls, boobies, pelicans and Galapagos Hawks, among others. TheFlightless Cormorant, a peculiar bird which has lost the ability to fly, is also part of this rich fauna.
On the larger Galapagos Islands, four ecological zones have been defined: coastal, low or dry, transitional and humid. In the first, species such as myrtle, mangrove and saltbush can be found.
Madacascar Island is located in South-Wester shore of Africa Continent in Indian Ocean. This island is 4th largest island in the World. The island is created by seperating from African Continet because of movements of East African Rift. Islands separated from the continent made up of many geological periods are usually close to us. For example, the island of Great Britain in continental Europe, Asia and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, the fourth time, the island of Madagascar separated from Africa in the middle of the second time. Some of the continent's land surface lowering of the separation of continents, seas rise, or cause mold over the continent. As a result of disintegration of the old continent, these islands may occur. As of 2012 it has over200 extant mammal species, including over 100 species of lemurs, about 300 species of birds, more than 260 species of reptiles, and at least 266 species of amphibians. The island also has a rich invertebrate fauna including earthworms, insects, spiders and nonmarine molluscs.
Madacasgar Island is very rich about flora and fauna. If we compare to Galapagos Island, it is beter because of climate of madacascar and also it is very large(4th) island. Because of this reaosns madacagar is richer than Galapagos islans about animal and plant diversity.Lemurs have been characterized as "Madagascar's flagship mammal species" by Conservation International. In the absence ofmonkeys and other competitors, these primates have adapted to a wide range of habitats and diversified into numerous species. As of 2012, there were officially 103 species and subspecies of lemur, 39 of which were described by zoologists between 2000 and 2008. They are almost all classified as rare, vulnerable, or endangered. At least 17 species of lemur have become extinct since man arrived on Madagascar, all of which were larger than the surviving lemur species.
A number of other mammals, including the cat-like fossa, are endemic to Madagascar. Over 300 species of birds have been recorded on the island, of which over 60 percent (including four families and 42 genera) are endemic. The few families and genera of reptile that have reached Madagascar have diversified into more than 260 species, with over 90 percent of these being endemic (including one endemic family).The island is home to two-thirds of the world's chameleon species, including the smallest known, and researchers have proposed that Madagascar may be the origin of all chameleons. Endemic fish of Madagascar include two families, 14 genera and over 100 species, primarily inhabiting the island's freshwater lakes and rivers. Although invertebrates remain poorly studied on Madagascar, researchers have found high rates of endemism among the known species.
More than 80 percent of Madagascar's 14,883 plant species are found nowhere else in the world, including five plant families. There are several endemic families including the Asteropeiaceae, Sarcolaenaceae and Sphaerosepalaceae. The humid eastern part of the island was formerly covered in rainforest with many palms, ferns and bamboo, although much of this forest has been reduced by human activity. The west has areas of dry deciduous forest with many lianas and with tamarind and baobabs among the dominant trees.Subhumid forest once covered much of the central plateau but grassland is now the dominant vegetation type there. The familyDidiereaceae, composed of four genera and 11 species, is limited to the spiny forests of southwestern Madagascar.
Four-fifths of the world's Pachypodium species are endemic to the island. Three-fourths[ of Madagascar's 860 orchid species are found here alone, as are six of the world's eight baobab species. The island is home to around 170 palm species, three times as many as on all of mainland Africa; 165 of them are endemic. Many native plant species are used as herbal remedies for a variety of afflictions. The drugs vinblastine and vincristine, used to treat Hodgkin's disease, leukemia and other cancers,
Emre Duman
