Monkey lemur

Monkey lemur
A giant lemur walks on all four feet, with a dark tail held low. The head has a short snout (for a lemur).
Life restoration of Hadropithecus stenognathus
A full-body, right side profile of giant lemur walking on all four feet, with a bushy tail head up in the air. The head has a long snout compared to a monkey, but on par with that of a lemur.
Life restoraton of Archaeolemur edwardsi
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Strepsirrhini
Superfamily: Lemuroidea
Family: †Archaeolemuridae
Forsyth Major, 1896[1]
Genera

The monkey lemurs[2] or baboon lemurs[3] (Archaeolemuridae) are a recently extinct family of lemurs known from skeletal remains from sites on Madagascar dated to 1000 to 3000 years ago.[3]

The monkey lemur family is divided into two genera (family: Hadropithecus and Archaeolemur) and three species. Despite their common names, members of Archaeolemuridae were not as closely related to monkeys as they were to other lemurs.

Phylogeny

Archaeolemuridae placement within the lemur phylogeny[4][5][6]
 Lemuriformes 

 Daubentoniidae 


 †Megaladapidae 

 Lemuridae 


Cheirogaleidae

Lepilemuridae
 †Archaeolemuridae 

†Archaeolemur

†Hadropithecus

 †Palaeopropithecidae 

Indriidae







References

  1. ↑ McKenna, MC; Bell, SK (1997). Classification of Mammals: Above the Species Level. Columbia University Press. p. 335. ISBN 0-231-11013-8.
  2. ↑ Mittermeier, Russell A. et al. (2006). Lemurs of Madagascar (2nd ed.). Conservation International. p. 43. ISBN 1-881173-88-7.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Nowak, Ronald M. (1999). Walker's Primates of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 91–92. ISBN 0-8018-6251-5.
  4. ↑ Horvath, J. et al. (2008). "Development and application of a phylogenomic toolkit: Resolving the evolutionary history of Madagascar's lemurs" (PDF). Genome Research 18 (3): 489–99. doi:10.1101/gr.7265208. PMC 2259113. PMID 18245770. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
  5. ↑ Orlando, L.; Calvignac, S.; Schnebelen, C.; Douady, C.J.; Godfrey, L.R.; Hänni, C. (2008). "DNA from extinct giant lemurs links archaeolemurids to extant indriids". BMC Evolutionary Biology 8: 121. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-8-121. PMC 2386821. PMID 18442367.
  6. ↑ Godfrey, L.R.; Jungers, W.L. (2003). "Subfossil Lemurs". In Goodman, S.M.; Benstead, J.P. The Natural History of Madagascar. University of Chicago Press. pp. 1247–1252. ISBN 0-226-30306-3.