evidence: Socotra or Soqotra (Arabic سقطرى ; Suquṭra) is a small archipelago of four islands and islets in the northwest Indian Ocean near the Gulf of Aden. Nearly 190 nautical miles (220 mi/350 km) south of the Arabian Peninsula, the archipelago is 250 kilometers (155 mi) long, west to east, and protracts from continental Africa along the Horn of Africa. It is part of the Republic of Yemen. [...] Socotra is one of the most isolated landforms on Earth of continental origin (rather than volcanic origin). The islands of the archipelago stand on coral banks and are believed to have once been connected with the African and Arabian mainlands as part of the ancient southern supercontinent of Gondwana. They detached during the Middle Pliocene (ca 6 million years ago), in the same set of rifting events that opened the Gulf of Aden to its northwest.