Bad genes are to blame for the extinction of giant lemurs
It is believed that giant lemurs (megaladapis) became extinct in the Pleistocene, but there are no obvious reasons for this, since they were not threatened by predators, and their food supply has remained unchanged to this day. At the same time, the hypothesis of some zoologists that the culprit in the death of these animals was man, and this happened quite recently by historical standards, looks quite convincing.
The height of an adult Megaladapis was comparable to the height of a short person, the weight was supposedly up to 70 kilograms (in the largest species, Megaladapis Edwards, the only one in the genus Peloriadapis, according to some sources, up to 140 and even up to 200 kilograms).
It is known that back in the 17th century, one of the French explorers of Madagascar described huge animals with a “human” face that terrified the aborigines. In particular, in Madagascar there were legends about the humanoid creatures tretretretra (or tratratratra, a legend recorded by Etienne de Flacourt in 1658) and tocandia, which allows us to develop theories that a population of megaladapis still survives in the depths of the island.
Other theories link the story of Tretretret, which has a round human-like head, unlike the elongated skull of Megaladapis, with another subfossil lemur, Paleopropithecus.
There are radiocarbon dates that indicate Edwards' Megaladapis was still living in Madagascar at the time Europeans arrived there in 1504. Perhaps the giant lemur can still be found in remote corners today tropical forests islands. The places where his bones were found were the upper layers of swamps and lake silt deposits.
Sometimes a “white jelly-like substance” was found in the skulls of “fossil” lemurs. Some of the bones looked suspiciously fresh.
It is hoped that a small population of giant lemurs still exists, but this hope is very slim. The nitrogen analysis may have been skewed by the high nitrogen content of the swamp sediments, and the "white jelly-like substance" in the lemur skulls may have been due to the unusual preservative effect of the swamp soil.
Do you remember how the remains of a man who died several thousand years ago were found in one of the swamps in Denmark? They turned out to be almost untouched by the process of decay, and yet they are several thousand years old!
Local legends and eyewitness accounts of living giant lemurs in Madagascar have been known to researchers for a long time, but it is still difficult to say with complete certainty whether they are based on visual observations or are simply part of folklore.
Considering that man appeared on Madagascar quite late, it can be assumed that individual representatives of the Pleistocene fauna, like the giant lemur, survived on the island until relatively recently and died only a few hundred years ago. Or maybe some still exist?
It is believed that giant lemurs (megaladapis) became extinct in the Pleistocene, but there are no obvious reasons for this, because predators did not threaten them, and the food supply remained unchanged to this day. At the same time, the hypothesis of some zoologists that the culprit in the death of these animals was man, and this happened quite recently by historical standards, looks quite convincing.
The height of an adult Megaladapis was comparable to the height of a short person, the weight was supposedly up to 70 kilograms (in the largest species, Megaladapis Edwards, the only one in the genus Peloriadapis, according to some sources, up to 140 and even up to 200 kilograms).
It is known that back in the 17th century, one of the French explorers of Madagascar described huge animals with a “human” face that terrified the aborigines. In particular, in Madagascar there were legends about the humanoid creatures tretretretra (or tratratratra, a legend recorded by Etienne de Flacourt in 1658) and tocandia, which allows us to develop theories that a population of megaladapis still survives in the depths of the island.
Other theories link the story of Tretretret, which has a round human-like head, unlike the elongated skull of Megaladapis, with another subfossil lemur, Paleopropithecus.
There are radiocarbon dates that indicate Edwards' Megaladapis was still living in Madagascar at the time Europeans arrived there in 1504. Perhaps the giant lemur can still be found today in the remote corners of the island's tropical forests. The places where his bones were found were the upper layers of swamps and lake silt deposits.
Sometimes a “white jelly-like substance” was found in the skulls of “fossil” lemurs. Some of the bones looked suspiciously fresh.
It is hoped that a small population of giant lemurs still exists, but this hope is very slim. The nitrogen analysis may have been skewed by the high nitrogen content of the swamp sediments, and the "white jelly-like substance" in the lemur skulls may have been due to the unusual preservative effect of the swamp soil.
Do you remember how the remains of a man who died several thousand years ago were found in one of the swamps in Denmark? They turned out to be almost untouched by the process of decay, and yet they are several thousand years old!
Local legends and eyewitness accounts of living giant lemurs in Madagascar have been known to researchers for a long time, but it is still difficult to say with complete certainty whether they are based on visual observations or are simply part of folklore.
Considering that man appeared on Madagascar quite late, it can be assumed that individual representatives of the Pleistocene fauna, like the giant lemur, survived on the island until relatively recently and died only a few hundred years ago. Or maybe some still exist?
The ancient book “History of the Great Island of Madagascar” mentions a rare and mysterious beast, the Tretretre. According to the description, he was the size of a two-year-old calf, had a face similar to a human, and arms and legs like those of a monkey.
Scientists have now established that they were almost certainly talking about giant extinct lemurs, most likely one of the largest - Megaladapis Edwards, which disappeared only 500-700 years ago.
Megaladapis edwardsi
Megaladapis are also called koala lemurs because of their lifestyle - they, like koalas, loved to lazily climb tree branches and eat leaves.
The height of an adult Megaladapis was comparable to the height of a short person, the weight was supposedly up to 70 kilograms; in Megaladapis Edwards the weight even reached 200 kilograms.
Lifestyle
Different versions have been put forward about how Megaladapis lived and who he was like. Some scientists suggested that it was terrestrial view. Others considered Megaladapis to be a semi-aquatic animal: with its strong front paws, it supposedly could row like a real swimmer, and it ate exclusively mollusks and crayfish.
Now experts still admit that this extinct animal, as befits a lemur, climbed trees, although it did it very slowly. He could not jump from branch to branch - his size did not allow him. Megaladapis ate leaves, as evidenced by the structure of its large teeth and powerful (more powerful than even a gorilla’s) jaws.
Skeleton and skull of Megaladapis Edwards
Habitat
Edwards' Megaladapis lived in the southern and southwestern parts of Madagascar. This animal was endemic to the island, that is, it was not found anywhere else on Earth.
It is worth noting that all animal world This small piece of land, located off the eastern shores of the world's hottest continent, is amazing. Not only lemurs lived and live here, but also hedgehogs without spines (tenrecs), pygmy hippos and other unusual representatives of the animal world.
The first to become acquainted with the strange fauna were people who sailed from distant Indonesia. These were the ancestors of the Malagasy - the indigenous population of Madagascar. Europeans arrived here almost a thousand years later - in the 16th century.
Why did it become extinct?
It is not known exactly why the animal became extinct. Maybe the reason was the disappearance of forests in Madagascar or a long drought, or maybe megaladapis were exterminated for food local residents: Traces of human consumption were found on some of the bones found.
Some are sure that it has not become extinct at all, but due to extermination by humans it has become much less common. Legends about the tetretret beast still circulate among local residents.
Lemur or not lemur?
Despite the fact that more than one generation of scientists classifies Megaladapis as a lemur, there are always researchers who claim that this is incorrect. They motivate this by the fact that lemurs for the most part are cute animals with a funny face, and megaladapis had a skull the size of a gorilla.
Today, lemurs live within Madagascar. There are about 90 species. All of them are small animals: the largest of them weigh no more than 10 kg.
The most famous and, unfortunately, representative of the Malagasy fauna that became extinct about 300 years ago is the Aepyornithidae - a giant flightless bird ostrich family. Wasn't she the same "roc bird" from Arabian tales and traveler stories? Many believe that apyornis was destroyed by humans relatively recently. The largest bird on earth reached 3 m in height, weighed 450 kg and laid eggs with a volume of 8 liters. Along with Epiornis, the sad list of extinct animals in Madagascar includes a dwarf hippopotamus, which weighed no more than 250 kg, and a giant lemur, Archaeolemur, which weighed over 100 kg.
Ancient aardvark
Ancient Aardvark - Plesiorycteropus madagascariensis- one or two species of which existed in Madagascar 1000 years ago. This animal is classified in a separate order Bibymalagasia.
Giant lemurs
At least 17 species of giant lemurs have gone extinct since humans arrived in Madagascar. All of them were larger than the existing species. These included the giant aye-aye arm, three to four times the mass modern look. Three species of the genus Megaladapis reached the size of an orangutan. Eight species of sloth lemurs shared similarities with South American sloths. Representatives of the genus Palaeopropithecus reached the size of chimpanzees. and lemurs of the genus Archaeoindris weighed over 200 kg and were more massive than adult gorillas Troglodytes gorilla.
Giant Fossa
Giant Fossa - Cryptoprocta spelea- was about a quarter times larger than the current species, reaching the size of an ocelot. It is believed that the giant fossa preyed on giant lemurs - all of which have disappeared since humans settled Madagascar.
Malagasy hippopotamus
The Malagasy hippopotamus disappeared no earlier than a thousand years ago, since the development of the island by people. There are three known species of pygmy hippos that live in Madagascar.
Scientists traditionally tend to explain the extinction of a variety of animals that occurred in historical times by human activity. But analysis of subfossil DNA from Madagascar's giant lemurs shows that not everything is so simple.
Reconstruction: Roman Uchitel
The African island of Madagascar is known as a real treasure trove of unusual living creatures. More than 80% of the local flora and fauna are found nowhere else in the world. And several thousand years ago, before people appeared on the island, its population was even more bizarre - there were pygmy hippopotamuses, horned crocodiles, three-meter-tall birds and lemurs, not inferior in size to a male modern gorilla.
Most experts agree that important role in the death of these giant lemurs belongs precisely to the people who landed on Madagascar about 2000 years ago. By hunting and destroying the traditional habitat of lemurs with their agricultural activities, the Malagasy caused a mass extinction on a single island. But a recent DNA analysis of extinct species by a team of American and Malagasy researchers suggests that the largest lemurs were predisposed to extinction more than their smaller relatives.
Paleontologists focused on DNA from lemur teeth and bones dating from 550 to 5,600 years ago. The genetic material of a total of 23 individuals belonging to five different types lemurs, whose disappearance coincided with the appearance of humans. These are Pachylemurs, Archaeolemurs, Megaladapis and two species of Paleopropithecus from the collections of the University of Antananarivo and the Duke University Lemur Center. The study also used genetic data from eight existing species lemurs, including the three largest.
As we found out, extinct species of giant lemurs had more low performance genetic diversity than those that have survived to this day. This situation is generally typical for animals whose populations are too small. The results did not surprise the researchers, admitted one of the authors of the work, professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania George Perry. “Large species often need large areas and lower population density compared to less large species", he explained, noting that economic activity man still did her job dirty business in the reduction of territories suitable for giant lemurs to live.
Meanwhile, the study found no connection between body size and genetic diversity in lemurs living today. True, the largest of them weigh no more than five kilograms, so scientists have concluded that relatively small body sizes are very useful for survival.
“We hope that our work will be another step towards answering the question of why and how diverse lemurs first spread throughout Madagascar, and then most of them were lost,” “summed up study co-author Edward Louis from the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha.