Figure 1 | Simplified geology of Madagascar and India reconstructed to 90–85Ma. Mauritius (M) is reconstructed in a likely location near Archaean–Neoproterozoic rocks in central-east Madagascar just prior to break-up 2 . The exact size and geometries of Mauritius and other potential Mauritian continental fragments (collectively known as Mauritia, including SM Saya de Malha; C, Chagos; CC, Cargados-Carajos Banks; LAC, Laccadives; N, Nazreth; see present location in Fig. 6) are unknown, and are generously drawn in the diagram. We propose that Mauritia is dominantly underlain by Archaean continental crust, and part of the ancient nucleus of Madagascar 25,46 and India 20,21 (stippled black line). A Large Igneous Province event (linked to the Marion plume) occurred from 92 to 84Ma, and most of Madagascar was covered with flood basalts (full extent not shown for simplicity). Blue stippled line indicates the site of Cretaceous pre-breakup strike-slip faulting. AG, Analava gabbro (91.6Ma); LR, Laxmi Ridge; S, Seychelles; SM, St Mary rhyolites (91.2Ma) 41 . The black–white box (geology of Madagascar) is enlarged in the inset to Fig. 5. Inset map shows simplified geology of Mauritius, including trachyte plugs 7 . Star symbol marked MAU-8 is the sampling area for the present study and black bars indicate locations of zircons recovered from beach sand samples 2