Socotra: sea separation and island life

Exploration · Neogene

Socotra: sea separation and island life

Present landscape → Gulf of Aden geology → different biological histories · explanatory steps

An explanatory illustration inspired by present-day Socotra dragon’s blood woodland, not a photograph of a specific stand or vegetation reconstructed for 18 million years ago.

Socotra today supports the endemic dragon’s blood tree, Dracaena cinnabari. Its distinctive life reflects both the opening of the Gulf of Aden and histories of separation, arrival and evolution that differ among lineages.