ABSTRACT
Lemurs are the only primates that live on Madagascar. They are part of one of the two major branches of living primates, the strepsirhines, largely nocturnal species, all but one arboreal, and characterized by a good sense of smell, eyes that are adapted to night vision, and lower front teeth shaped like a protruding toothcomb that is used for grooming the fur, and for feeding. A far smaller landmass than the other regions where primates live, with much less rainforest and botanical richness, Madagascar has roughly the same number of primate genera, organized taxonomically as four families. The majority are ecologically separated from one another by size, diet, locomotion, behavior, etc., like primate communities found elsewhere, with an additional dimension: lemur genera are active either at night, during the day, or at times during both night and day. Madagascar primates also include a surprising number of outliers, animals with highly unusual diets or lifestyles that evolved as alternatives to divide food resources or to survive food shortages in an exceptionally variable climate, such as hibernating mouse lemurs and echolocating aye-ayes that gnaw holes in trees and feed on wood-boring insect larvae. As a consequence, Madagascar’s lemurs are the most diversified taxonomic group of primates.
