  Recent observations of intermediate age (1 - 3 Gyr) massive star clusters in
the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) have revealed that the majority possess
bifurcated or extended main-sequence turn-off (EMSTO) morphologies. This effect
can be understood to arise from subsequent star formation amongst the stellar
population with age differences between constituent stars amounting to 50 - 300
Myr. Age spreads of this order are similarly invoked to explain the light
element abundance variations witnessed in ancient globular clusters. In this
paper we explore the proposition that the clusters exhibiting the EMSTO
phenomenon are a general phase in the evolution of massive clusters, one that
naturally leads to the particular chemical properties of the ancient globular
cluster population.
  We show that the isolation of EMSTO clusters to intermediate ages is the
consequence of observational selection effects. In our proposed scenario, the
EMSTO phenomenon is identical to that which establishes the light element
abundance variations that are ubiquitous in the ancient globular cluster
population. Our scenario makes a strong prediction: EMSTO clusters will exhibit
abundance variations in the light elements characteristic of the ancient GC
population.
