查看文章

Seventeen species of large‐bodied lemurs recently lived on the island of Madagascar alongside their smaller‐bodied still‐extant relatives. Called koala lemurs, monkey lemurs, and sloth lemurs (because of their convergences with other, distantly related animals), these lemurs occupied a wide variety of niches, displayed a range of locomotor behaviors, and had distinctively different diets. Known to scientists for well over a century, these creatures sported bizarre adaptations that have long fascinated paleontologists. Advances in molecular techniques have allowed scientists to reconstruct likely divergence dates and relationships among living and extinct lemur taxa; the Archaeolemuridae and Palaeopropithecidae are related to Indriidae, and the Megaladapidae to Lemuridae. Extinction occurred well after humans colonized Madagascar. There is increasing evidence that hunting played a major role in their …