Mouse lemurs, the smallest primates in the world, evolved in isolation along with other lemurs on the island of Madagascar.
Lemurs, primates belonging to the suborder Strepsirrhini which branched off from other primates less than 63 million years ago, evolved on the island of Madagascar, for at least 40 million years. They share some traits with the most basal primates, and thus are often confused as being ancestral to modern monkeys, apes, and humans. Instead, they merely resemble ancestral primates.
Lemurs are thought to have evolved during the Eocene or earlier, sharing a closest common ancestor with lorises, pottos, and galagos (lorisoids). Fossils from Africa and some tests of nuclear DNA suggest that lemurs made their way to Madagascar between 40 and 52 mya. Other mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence comparisons offer an alternative date range of 62 to 65 mya. An ancestral lemur population is thought to have inadvertently rafted to the island on a floating mat of vegetation, although hypotheses for land bridges and island hopping have also been proposed. The timing and number of hypothesized colonizations has traditionally hinged on the phylogenetic affinities of the aye-aye, the most basal member of the lemur clade.
Having undergone their own independent evolution on Madagascar, lemurs have diversified to fill many niches normally filled by other types of mammals. They include the smallest primates in the world, and once included some of the largest. Since the arrival of humans approximately 2,000 years ago, lemurs are now restricted to 10% of the island, or approximately 60,000 square kilometers (23,000 square miles), with many facing extinction.
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undergone their own independent evolution on Madagascar, lemurs have diversified to fill many niches normally filled by other types of mammals. They include the...
Lemurs (/ˈliːmər/ LEE-mər) (from Latin lemures – "ghosts" or "spirits") are wet-nosed primates of the superfamily Lemuroidea (/lɛmjʊˈrɔɪdiə/ lem-yuurr-OY-dee-ə)...
The mouse lemurs are nocturnal lemursof the genus Microcebus. Like all lemurs, mouse lemurs are native to Madagascar. Mouse lemurs have a combined head...
on observations of recent lemuriform taxa, such as cheirogaleid lemurs (particularly fork-marked lemurs and the hairy-eared dwarf lemur) and galagos, which...
sloth lemurs (Palaeopropithecidae) comprise an extinct family oflemurs that includes four genera. The common name can be misleading, as members of Palaeopropithecidae...
Subfossil lemurs are lemurs from Madagascar that are represented by recent (subfossil) remains dating from nearly 26,000 years ago to approximately 560 years...
primates—close relatives oflemurs—until the 1980s. Colugos, also incorrectly referred to as "flying lemurs", were once considered lemur-like primates, but...
oflemurs, primate from Madagascar Lost city Legends of Mount Shasta Lemuria Mauritia Mu Phantom island Ramtha Theresa Bane (2014). Encyclopedia of Imaginary...
are most closely related to mouse lemurs within Cheirogaleidae, a family of small, nocturnal lemurs. Giant mouse lemurs sleep in nests during the day and...
extant primate species, including the lemursof Madagascar, lorises of Southeast Asia, galagos or "bush babies" of Africa, and to the anthropoids, which...
characteristic "shi-fak" alarm call. Like all lemurs, they are found only on the island of Madagascar. All species of sifakas are threatened, ranging from endangered...
The monkey lemurs or baboon lemurs (Archaeolemuridae) are a recently extinct family oflemurs known from skeletal remains from sites on Madagascar dated...
Convergent evolution is the independent evolutionof similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous...
ruffed lemursof the genus Varecia are strepsirrhine primates and are the largest extant lemurs within the family Lemuridae. Like all living lemurs, they...
Cairo, gave rise to all living species—lemursof Madagascar, lorises of Southeast Asia, galagos or "bush babies" of Africa, and the anthropoids: platyrrhine...
koala lemur, is an extinct genus oflemurs belonging to the family Megaladapidae, consisting of three species that once inhabited the island of Madagascar...
Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes...
lemurs, also known as brown lemurs, are the lemurs in genus Eulemur. They are medium-sized primates that live exclusively on Madagascar. The fur of the...
like many lemurs. All prosimians possess two laterally flattened toilet claws, used for grooming. These are found on the second toe in lemurs and lorises...
performed. A significant number of fixed differences present in the lemurs in the Sahafary region distinguished them from the lemurs in other regions, suggesting...
which contains the mouse lemurs, dwarf lemurs, giant mouse lemurs, fork-marked lemurs, and hairy-eared dwarf lemur. The mouse lemur genus Microcebus includes...
Palaeopropithecus is a recently extinct genus of large sloth lemurs from Madagascar related to living lemur species found there today. Three species are...
Cheirogaleidae: dwarf lemurs and mouse-lemurs (41 species) Family Daubentoniidae: aye-aye (1 species) Family Lemuridae: ring-tailed lemur and allies (21 species)...
Cheirogaleidae, complicating the picture of the early evolution of lemurs by suggesting that lemurs originated in Asia. Described from a few teeth, the specimen...
The evolutionof mammals has passed through many stages since the first appearance of their synapsid ancestors in the Pennsylvanian sub-period of the...
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