A new study by a team of international scientists including Liliana M. Dávalos, professor of conservation biology from Stony Brook University's Department of Ecology and Evolution, reveals that it would take 3 million years to recover the number of species that went extinct from human activity on Madagascar. Published in Nature Communications, the study also projects that if currently threatened species go extinct on Madagascar, recovering them would take more than 20 million years — much longer than what has previously been found on any other island archipelago in the world. From unique baobab species to lemurs, the island of Madagascar is one of the world's most important biodiversity hotspots. Approximately 90 percent of its species of plants and animals are found nowhere else. After humans settled on the island about 2,500 years ago, Madagascar experienced many extinctions, including giant lemurs, elephant birds and dwarf hippos. Yet unlike most islands, Madagascar's fauna is still