In the summer of 2024, Duke undergraduate Erika Kraabel traveled to Madagascar to help the DLC Museum of Natural History team collect lemur bones at Bezà Mahafaly Special Reserve, a longstanding research site in southwestern Madagascar. “At the DLC Museum, I’ve been learning the foundations of fossil preparation and have been involved in rehousing the […]
An important part of the Duke Lemur Center’s mission is to inspire and train the next generation of scientists and environmental stewards. To do that, the DLC offers as many opportunities as possible for students to work side-by-side withe the Lemur Center’s researchers, science educators, animal care and veterinary staff, and conservationists. Here, Duke Evolutionary […]
By Orion Kornfeld with Karie Whitman and Matt Borths, Ph.D. Published in the 2022 Duke Lemur Center annual magazine. Read the original here. The Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History (DLCMNH) is the only fossil preparation lab at Duke University. “The fossils at the DLC teach us when, where, and how the ancestors of […]
Ren Collins, a summer intern with the DLC Museum of Natural History, traveled with the Duke fossil team to Wyoming in 2023. There, Ren captured drone footage of the badlands to tell the story of fossils from the field to the museum.
Of all the animals on Earth, why are we so passionate about lemurs? Of all the islands in the ocean, why is Madagascar remarkable—and so worthy of our conservation attention? In the new “Why” issue of the DLC magazine, you’ll find out! Complimentary copies of the magazine have been mailed to donors of $250+ […]
By Alanna Marron, Lead Education Technician Who Was Megaladapis? Slowly and deliberately, a large creature moves through the tree tops. Its large hands and feet securely grasp the branches as it reaches for a tasty branch of leaves. This is Megaladapis. Also known as the “koala lemur,” Megaladapis is an extinct subfossil lemur from Madagascar. […]
Around 30 million years ago, the Earth’s climate shifted from swampy to icy, and 63 percent of mammal species vanished from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. A large collection of fossils housed at the Duke Lemur Center Division of Fossil Primates, representing the life’s work of the late Elwyn Simons of Duke, has enabled scientists […]
By Matt Borths, Curator of the Duke Lemur Center’s Division of Fossil Primates. In honor of baby Coquerel’s sifaka Marie’s big media debut, here’s a baby lemur from the Division of Fossil Primates! (Seriously, if you haven’t seen the video of Marie that was uploaded yesterday, find your way to it now. The fossils will wait, […]
