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The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a long-fingered lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar with rodent-like teeth that perpetually grow [3] and a special thin middle finger that they can use to catch grubs and larvae out of tree trunks. It is the world's largest nocturnal primate. [4]
Daubentoniidae contains a single species, the aye-aye. Indriidae contains nineteen woolly lemur and sifaka species in three genera. Lemuridae contains 21 ruffed, ring-tailed, bamboo, and other lemur species in five genera.
The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is the only extant member. However, a second species known as the giant aye-aye (Daubentonia robusta) lived until recently, becoming extinct within the last 1000 years. [2]
Researchers have, for the first time, recorded the aye-aye inserting a finger up its nostrils and then eating the mucus. Nose picking lemur 'could shed light on behaviour deemed improper in humans ...
The aye-aye, mouse lemurs, woolly lemurs, and sportive lemurs are nocturnal, while ring-tailed lemurs and most of their kin, sifakas, and indri are diurnal. [80] Yet some or all of the brown lemurs ( Eulemur ) are cathemeral , which means that they may be active during the day or night, depending on factors such as temperature and predation ...
Another interpretation of the aye-aye's origins has once again called into question the single origins of the lemurs. The aye-aye and a fossil strepsirrhine primate from Africa, Plesiopithecus, share similarities in the shape of the skull and the morphology of the lower jaw, which suggest that the latter could be an early relative of the aye ...
Indriids, sportive lemurs, the aye-aye, and the extinct sloth lemurs, monkey lemurs, and koala lemurs have reduced dentitions, having lost incisors, canines, or premolars. [73] The ancestral deciduous dentition is 2.1.3 2.1.3, but young indriids, aye-ayes, koala lemurs, sloth lemurs, and probably monkey lemurs have fewer deciduous teeth. [56] [74]
Strepsirrhini is split between two clades: Lemuroidea, divided into the families Cheirogaleidae (dwarf and mouse lemurs), Daubentoniidae (the aye-aye), Indriidae (wooly lemurs, sifakas, and indri), Lemuridae (lemurs), and Lepilemuridae (sportive lemurs); and Lorisoidea, split between the galago family Galagidae and the loris family Lorisidae.