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Lemurs (/ ˈ l iː m ər / ⓘ LEE-mər; from Latin lemures lit. ' ghosts ' or ' spirits ') are wet-nosed primates of the superfamily Lemuroidea (/ l ɛ m j ʊ ˈ r ɔɪ d i ə / lem-yuurr-OY-dee-ə), [4] divided into 8 families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are endemic to the island of Madagascar. Most ...
As a result of the island's long isolation from neighboring continents, Madagascar is home to an abundance of plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth. [2] [3] Approximately 90 percent of all plant and animal species found in Madagascar are endemic, [4] including the lemurs (a type of strepsirrhine primate), the carnivorous fossa and
The endemic primates of Madagascar, the lemurs, constitute a single clade and are the largest branch of strepsirrhines. It has been proposed that a common ancestor of all Madagascar's lemurs rafted across the Mozambique Channel from Africa [23] [24] [note 7] between 50 and 60 million years ago.
Like all lemurs, it is endemic to the island of Madagascar, where it is endangered. Known locally in Malagasy as maky (ⓘ, spelled maki in French) or hira, it ranges from gallery forests to spiny scrub in the southern regions of the island. It is omnivorous, as well as the most adapted to living terrestrially of the extant lemurs.
Because all lemurs, including these two brown lemur species, are only native to the island of Madagascar, they are considered to be endemic. Historically, lemurs ranged across the entire island inhabiting a wide variety of habitats, including dry deciduous forests, lowland forests, spiny thickets, subhumid forests, montane forest, and mangrove.
The history of the fauna of Madagascar in the context of plate tectonics and paleoclimate over the last 200 million years (Aepyornithidae arrived later than is indicated). A good example of Malagasy convergent evolution is the fossa, a Malagasy carnivore that has evolved in appearance and behaviour to be so like a large cat that it was originally classified in Felidae, when it is in fact more ...
The black lemur (Eulemur macaco) is a species of lemur from the family Lemuridae.Like all lemurs, it is endemic to Madagascar.Originally, the species was thought to have two subspecies, [4] Eulemur macaco macaco and Eulemur macaco flavifrons, both of which were elevated to species status by Mittermeier et al. in 2008 to Eulemur macaco and Eulemur flavifrons respectively. [4]
The black-and-white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata) is an endangered species of ruffed lemur, one of two which are endemic to the island of Madagascar.Despite having a larger range than the red ruffed lemur, it has a much smaller population that is spread out, living in lower population densities and reproductively isolated.