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Northern Highlands

biogeographical region of Madagascar

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 4, 2023
Entity authorityQ7058393
Source-derived summary

The Northern Highlands are a mountainous biogeographical region of northern Madagascar. The region includes the Tsaratanana Massif (with the highest mountain of Madagascar, Maromokotro) and smaller nearby massifs such as Marojejy, Anjanaharibe-Sud, and Manongarivo. The Mandritsara Window separates the Northern from the Central Highlands and apparently acts as a barrier to dispersal between the two highlands, leading to species pairs such as Voalavo gymnocaudus (Northern Highlands) and Voalavo antsahabensis (Central Highlands). None of the montane endemics of Tsaratanana are shared with the major massifs of the Central Highlands.

References

Literature cited

Goodman, S.M., Rakotondravony, D., Randriamanantsoa, H.N. and Rakotomalala-Razanahoera, M. 2005. A new species of rodent from the montane forest of central eastern Madagascar (Muridae: Nesomyinae: Voalavo). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 118(4):863–873.

Goodman, S.M., Raxworthy, C.J., Maminirina, C.P. and Olson, L.E. 2006. A new species of shrew tenrec (Microgale jobihely) from northern Madagascar. Journal of Zoology 270:384–398.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Northern Highlands” as biogeographical region of Madagascar. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2005, 2006—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Northern, Highlands and biogeographical can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as biogeographical region of Madagascar. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 4, 2023. The linked authority identifier is Q7058393. Authority coordinates are -14.500, 49.000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2005 and 2006.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Northern Highlands primary sources, Northern Highlands archive and Northern research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Northern Highlands” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.