The Giant Lemur Of Madagascar
Lemurs are one of the best known groups of primates. Although today they are among the smallest (a modern lemur can weigh as little as 30 grams), years ago there was the giant lemur, capable of weighing up to 200 kilos.
Lemurs are wet-nosed primates, whose elongated snouts prevent them from having recognizable faces, as is the case with monkeys. This is because their main means of communication are smell and hearing.
Today we will talk about the giant lemur.
What were giant lemurs made of?
There were many species of giant lemur; some of them, even if still larger than the present lemurs, were not particularly impressive.
The Pachylemur genus , for example, had specimens weighing 13 kilos, just over the largest species of lemur among those still alive.
Still, there is evidence that lemurs of truly impressive size existed in the past. These are the giant lemurs, of which we know the existence thanks to the subfossil register (since their bones have never completely fossilized due to the rather recent disappearance).
Some of these remains have been found very recently. Suffice it to say that only in 2015, a group of scientists came across a real underwater cemetery in which hundreds of remains belonging to this species lay.
Giant lemur species
The largest species among the giant lemurs is the gorilla-sized Archaeoindris fontoynontii .
It is thought that this animal was able to climb trees, even though it spent most of its time on the ground.
We are talking about an animal with a characteristic jaw, which is known to exist since the twentieth century. According to the carbon 14 evidence, this primate already existed as early as 350 BC
The Palaeopropithecus is another giant lemurs, similar to the previous one, which weighed about 50 pounds. This is why it is thought to be an animal more suited to life in the trees, with large fingers to cling to the branches.
There were three species of this lemur, the most recent remains of which have been found in the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries.
There have been several types of giant lemurs; the genus Babakotia included animals weighing 20 kilos, while the monkey lemurs were very similar to today’s baboons, lived on the ground and had short legs.
The koala lemurs, on the other hand, given their similarities with the Australian mammal from which they take their name, were anything but lazy animals , even if they weighed 50 kilos.
It is thought that their appearance was very characteristic, endowed as they were with a horn like that of the rhinoceros and two eyes placed on the side of the skull.
How did the giant lemur become extinct?
It is believed that these lemurs became extinct due to the arrival of man in Madagascar, which happened about 3,000 years ago. Being very slow animals, they were in fact too exposed to hunting.
Furthermore, it is believed that the agricultural style of the place, based on deforestation, inevitably contributed to their extinction.
Among other things, there are various species of giant lemur whose remains found show mutilations on the bones; a sign that they were skinned and, in fact, hunted.
To confirm this last aspect, some cave paintings found in Madagascar would refer to the hunting of these animals.
Legends and stories of sightings of giant lemurs are still told by the elderly inhabitants of Madagascar.
Some assure that the extinction of this species is to be dated much more recently than what scholars say, or that there are even some examples still alive.
Legends, perhaps, told by the locals about these incredible animals.
