Lemurs
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
What are Lemurs?1
Lemurs have a bizarre appearance that has provoked different reactions from humans from "Let's kill them because they are bad omens" to "Awww... how cute!." A lemur's body is similar to a small monkey, but its face is longer (more like a rodent or dog). Their eyes tend to seem large for the size of their head giving them a look as if staring. Lemurs are prosimians2. Prosimi is a Suborder of the Order Primate. Humans also belong to the Order Primate, but are in the Suborder Anthropoidea and Superfamily Hominoidea. That means all Prosimi share the first four taxonomic classifications (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, and Order) with humans. Some people call all Prosimi "lemurs" but actually there are many Suborders and Superfamilys of Prosimi each with their own common name. Lemurs are classified as Suborder Strepsirhini and Superfamily Lemuroidea (there are 5 Families, 14 Genera, and about 55 Species of currently living lemur).
Where are Lemurs?
Lemurs evolved on Madagascar where the native word for lemur literally translates into "What's that!". Madagascar has the only natural population of lemurs in the world. However, the second largest lemur population is at Duke University's Primate Center where you can find more information on taxonomy and specific species than you ever thought possible.
What do Lemurs do?
Some lemurs stay in trees, and some live on the ground. As a matter of fact, despite being less developed, Lemurs fill just about every niche that a primate can. It is speculated that evolution of primates stopped on Madagascar, while it continued elsewhere, because there are no "great" predators (only 9 species of carnivore in total) and therefore less competition.
Lemur food
Lemurs eat mostly fruit and leaves, but a few species eat some insects.
Lemur sex
Within most species male and female Lemurs have similar markings. Gestation of a 30-150 days (depending on the species) will bring, typically, two new lemurs into the world.
Lemur issues
Many species of lemur are endangered (17, actually), including the Black Lemur3, the Aye-Aye4, and the Hairy-Eared Dwarf Lemur5 (no, really that's what they are called)
1This section contains a lot of Taxonomy2"Before Simians"3Eulemur macaco has two sub species: flavifrons and macaco4Daubentonia madagascariensis5Allocebus trichotis
