Figure 5 | Precambrian timescale and histogram of U–Pb ages from Madagascar and Mauritius. The diagram includes 368 U–Pb ages older than 600Ma from Madagascar 25 , Mauritius trachyte U–Pb ( 207 Pb/ 206 Pb) ages of the present study (red bars) and ages from an earlier study of beach sand in Mauritius 2 (blue bars). Arrows indicate that U–Pb ages are minimum ages (Pb-loss). Left-hand scale frequency for Madagascar ages and right-hand frequency ( N ¼ number of ages) for Mauritius ages. Inset shows geological map of Madagascar in the Masora region (see Fig. 1, main text) depicting the current size of Mauritius (thick red line); this illustrates that if underlain by continental crust of Madagascar affinity, Mauritius could well sample a spectrum of Neoproterozoic and Archean zircon xenocrysts. AIHSZ, Angavo-Ifanadiana High-Strain Zone in central-east