Figure 6.

“Darwin’s finches” of the primates. (A) Phylogenetic tree of the ∼100 species of lemurs, all endemic only to Madagascar. Parentheses, extinct species. In the ∼60 MY since their common ancestor colonized the island, lemurs radiated into diverse forms and functions adapted to nearly every ecological niche, like Darwin’s finches did in the Galapagos Islands. (B–E) The lemur clade includes (B) the iconic ring-tailed lemur L. catta featured as King Julien XIII in the Dreamworks movie Madagascar, (C) the greater bamboo lemur Prolemur simus that can metabolize the cyanide in ingested bamboo, (D) the red-fronted brown lemur Eulemur rufifrons with its distinctive sexually dichromatic coat, and (E) the indri Indri indri with its bellowing song that can be heard a kilometer away. Like most of Madagascar’s legendary endemic flora and fauna, all lemurs are critically threatened by deforestation, although gray mouse lemurs have International Union for Conservation of Nature “least concern” status because of their abundance. Phylogenetic tree adapted from Herrera and Davalos (2016). Photo credits: (B–E) Guy Albertelli.