The Madagascar GiantExtinct Or Alive : Season 1...
A small-bodied nocturnal lemur that probably weighed less than 1 kg was the first mammalian species to arrive, reaching Madagascar about 10 to 25 million years ahead of the others. Over many millions of years its descendants then gradually adapted to the various habitats that their new homeland had to offer while, over the same period of time, Madagascar's climate became wetter and increasingly monsoonal, due to the steady drift of the mega-island towards equatorial latitudes and the influence that the continuous uplift of the Himalayan mountains had on the development of the monsoon season. Like the Darwin finches of the Galápagos, the lemurs thus evolved and diversified until their diversity eventually became one of the most impressive within the order of the primates, to which we also belong. The diet of present-day lemurs varies between the species, from tough leaves for the indri (Indri indri) and young bamboo sprouts for the bamboo lemurs (Hapalemur), to tree-dwelling insects and grubs for the aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis). The lightest present-day lemur is Madame Berthe's mouse lemur (Microcebus berthae), which at 30 grams is the world's smallest primate. In contrast, the heaviest lemur, the indri, is about 250 times heavier, weighing between 7 and 10 kg. 59ce067264