By Matt Borths, Curator of the Duke Lemur Center’s Division of Fossil Primates. Happy Halloween from the DLC’s Division of Fossil Primates! These bats flew over the heads of extinct giant lemurs and elephant birds! Skulls, skeletons, monsters, and the bringing of things back from the dead? Every day is Halloween for a paleontologist!
Six-year-old male ring-tailed lemur Jones may look like he is a lemur somewhat lacking in arms as he sniffs a sapling in Natural Habitat Enclosure #9, but rest assured, he is a well-armed male in the prime of life! His odd posture is due to the fact that, in typical male ring-tail marking behavior, he […]
“One of my favorite lemurs is this extinct giant lemur called Paleopropithecus. It’s a relative of sifakas, but it’s built in a completely different way. These animals are nicknamed sloth lemurs because they have these long limbs and claws that let them move under tree branches in Madagascar. But my favorite feature is their round, […]
By Matt Borths, Curator of the Duke Lemur Center’s Division of Fossil Primates. This Fossil Friday, meet a primate in your own family tree: Aegyptopithecus, whose name means “The Egyptian Monkey.” This 30-million-year-old face would make a great template for a jack o’ lantern! Aegyptopithecus was named by Elwyn Simons — the father of modern primate paleontology and […]
“Some plants in Madagascar may have evolved fruit colors so that they can be seen by lemurs that are red-green colorblind.” Super interesting article — and a Duke University researcher is featured too! Plants Can’t Talk. But Some Fruits Say ‘Eat Me’ to Animals. By JoAnna Klein. Originally published in the New York Times on October 9, 2018. Read […]
By Matt Borths, Curator of the Duke Lemur Center’s Division of Fossil Primates. Meet Megaladapis, a gorilla-sized lemur that would have moved like an enormous koala! This giant lemur only went extinct between 500 and 300 years ago. Some researchers think there are trees in Madagascar that are still around that relied on Megaladapis to […]
Originally published on the Duke Research blog on September 27, 2018. By Robin Smith. To digest his leafy diet, this sifaka gets a little help from the trillions of bacteria that inhabit his gut. Sifaka lemurs living at the Duke Lemur Center feed on a range of wild plants during warm months, such as fresh sumac, tulip […]
Today is our first Fossil Friday, courtesy of Matt Borths, our new Curator of the DLC’s Division of Fossil Primates! This week we’re featuring… ELEPHANT BIRDS! A new species of elephant bird was announced this week: https://www.livescience.com/63675-worlds-largest-bird-is-vo…. Only a few hundred years ago, Madagascar was home to the largest bird ever known: Vorombe titan! This new genus […]
