lemur

The fork-marked lemur is tree-dwelling, with large eyes that look forwards over a small, pointed nose. The long, bushy tail is used for balance and, when held in different positions, as a signal to other lemurs.

Any of various prosimian primates of the Lemuridae family, found in Madagascar and the Comoros Islands. There are about 16 species, ranging from mouse-sized to dog-sized animals; the pygmy mouse lemur (Microcebus myoxinus), weighing 30 g/1 oz, is the smallest primate. The diademed sifaka, weighing 7 kg/15 lb, is the largest species of lemur. Lemurs are arboreal, and some species are nocturnal. They have long, bushy tails, and feed on fruit, insects, and small animals. Many are threatened with extinction owing to loss of their forest habitat and, in some cases, from hunting.

The fat-tailed dwarf lemur, cheirogaleus medius, is the first primate to be shown to hibernate through winter. Lemurs tagged with temperature transmitters demonstrated that, unlike other species that hibernate, dormant lemurs do not regulate their body temperature, which instead closely follows the ambient temperatures of their tree-hole homes. Lemurs hibernate to save energy through the hot, dry Madagascan winter period when their staple diet of fruit is scarce.

A 30-million-year-old fossil lemur was found in Pakistan in 2001. The lemur Butgilemur mathesoni is a relative of the dwarf lemur. Madagascar split from the Indian subcontinent 26 million years before lemurs are thought to have evolved, although there is a theory that a chain of islands may have joined Madagascar to India.

In 2000 researchers identified three new species of mouse lemur in Madagascar.