The mountain ranges in this region were formed over a period of 45 million years by the folding of the Indian Plate into the stationary landmass of Asia.
Schuster (1984) proposed that the disjunct distribution of Ptilidium ciliare between the northern and southern hemispheres could be explained by migration of the Indian Plate from Gondwana.
Indian | Indian Ocean | Indian National Congress | Indian Air Force | Indian Army | Indian Navy | French and Indian War | British Indian Army | Indian Railways | Indian Territory | Indian people | West Indian | Indian cuisine | River Plate | Club Atlético River Plate | Anglo-Indian | Indian Rebellion of 1857 | Bureau of Indian Affairs | Order of the Indian Empire | Indian Institute of Science | Indian independence movement | Indian Wells | Indian subcontinent | Indian classical music | Indian Premier League | Indian Institutes of Technology | Indian Institute of Technology Madras | Indian Idol | Indian Coast Guard | Indian Certificate of Secondary Education |
These two lineages must have separated during the Mesozoic already, as Madagascar and the Indian Plate had separated by the end of the Cretaceous.
They most probably were already a distinct lineage by the Turonian (c.90 mya), as the Indo-Malagasy clade must have originated before the split of Madagascar from the Indian Platewhich commenced then and was finished by the end of the Cretaceous.