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Karie, wearing ear protection, goggles, and a face mask, works on a large gray fossil.

Meet Duke’s Fossil Finders

By Stephen Schramm, Working@Duke Senior Writer. Originally published in Duke Today on February 19, 2025. Read the original and see the accompanying photos here.  Monthly open houses at the Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History offer glimpses of work behind evolutionary discoveries As the Madre de Dios River flows through Peru toward the Amazon, […]

Life reconstruction of Bastetodon, with large canine teeth, a white chin, and brown spotted fur.

30-million-year-old Skull Reveals Previously Unknown Species of Apex Carnivore

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN. Originally published on CNN Science on January 17, 2025. Read the original here.  Learn more about the DLC’s collaborations with Egyptian paleontologists, including the study’s lead author Shorouq Al-Ashqar, on pages 44-47 of LEMURS Magazine: The “Where” Issue. An apex carnivore was ‘king of the ancient Egyptian forest’ then mysteriously went […]

A paleontologist dressed in field gear is barely visible against the backdrop of a gray rocky cliff face in Wyoming.

Why Duke University’s Lemur Center Travels To Wyoming Every Summer

By Andrew Rossi. Originally published in Cowboy State Daily on December 1, 2024. Scientists from the Duke Lemur Center at Duke University come out to Wyoming every summer to find fossils from the earliest ancestors of modern-day lemurs and primates. They say the Bridger Basin is the Madagascar of the Eocene Period. There are plenty […]

Building the Future: A New Era of Studying and Caring for Earth’s Most Endangered Mammals

By Sally Bornbusch, Ph.D. and Sara Sorraia. Originally published in Duke Lemur Center Magazine in 2021. This fall, the Duke Lemur Center celebrates a transformational moment in its 55-year legacy of studying and caring for lemurs: the grand opening of the Anna Borruel Codina Center for Lemur Medicine and Research. Made possible thanks to an […]

Learning from a Loss: The story of Winnie, a rare lemur with an even rarer disease

An aye-aye’s cancer diagnosis brings together veterinarians, doctors, and scientists from NC and around the world  By Sally Bornbusch, Ph.D. Originally published in December 2021 in Issue 3 of the Duke Lemur Center’s annual magazine. On June 24, 2020, the DLC welcomed its eighth infant of the season: a rare baby aye-aye. Named “Winifred” after […]

To Europe, Two by Two: Sifaka breeding program expands internationally

In the summer and fall of 2021, the DLC shipped eight Coquerel’s sifakas to three European zoos, in an historic expansion of the Coquerel’s sifaka conservation breeding program—marking the beginning of a new chapter in lemur conservation. Read more on pages 42-43 of the Duke Lemur Center’s Annual Magazine. Story by Karl Leif Bates. Video […]

Four fossil skulls in profile against a black background

Duke Fossils Shine New Light on Mass Extinction Event

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 […]

An Unusual Creature is Coming out of Winter’s Slumber. Here’s Why Scientists Are Excited.

Duke Lemur Center recreates the seasonal swings of native habitat, helping to unlock the secrets of hibernation. By Robin Smith, Ph.D. Originally published in DukeTODAY on March 12, 2021. DURHAM, N.C. — If you binged on high-calorie snacks and then spent the winter crashed on the couch in a months-long food coma, you’d likely wake […]