Collaborative Research: Curating, digitizing, and disseminating results from an unparallel ed collection of fossil vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar

This long-term, multidisciplinary research documents the Late Cretaceous terrestrial vertebrate assemblage from the Maevarano Formation of northwestern Madagascar, to characterize the anatomy, systematics and paleobiogeographic significance of nonavian theropods and birds from this region. Recent research emphasizes a singular, exceptionally productive quarry (MAD05-42) that preserves a rich diversity of both avian and nonavian theropod dinosaurs, providing an unusually detailed window into the composition of a Madagascan Late Cretaceous ecosystem. This work in the Mahajanga Basin Project has included taxonomic description, comparative anatomy and phylogenetic assessment of multiple fossil taxa recovered since project inception in 1993.

While more recent contributions have addressed broader questions of diversity and developmental biology across the theropod assemblage. Notable project outputs include ontogenetic analyses of abelisaurid cranial anatomy, investigations of tooth formation and replacement rates in Majungasaurus, and studies that document the life history and paleoecology of large nonavian theropods at the end of the Cretaceous in Madagascar. The team has also identified uniquely derived avialan forms; among these is the stem bird Falcatakely forsterae, a taxon with an unusual high-faced beak morphology that adds complexity to interpretations of avian evolution during the Mesozoic. The Mahajanga Basin Project integrates field discovery with museum-based research and comparative analysis.

This work has produced syntheses of the extremely diverse avifauna of the Maevarano Formation, demonstrating that this single basin preserves a varied array of bird and nonavian theropod morphologies. These coordinated efforts—spanning excavation, description, ontogenetic study, and phylogenetic placement—have resulted in multiple peer-reviewed publications and ongoing work that continues to refine the evolutionary and ecological narratives for Madagascar’s latest Cretaceous terrestrial vertebrates. The research has been supported by major external funders, including the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society, and the project team has also established a non-profit fund, the Madagascar Ankizy Fund, to support education and health-care development in Madagascar. This project has helped reveal an unexpectedly diverse and intriguing assembly of vertebrates from Madagascar’s Late Cretaceous, and ongoing analyses promise further insights into the origins, development, and paleobiogeographic relationships of these taxa at the close of the Mesozoic Era.