32 



MAMMALIA— ORDER I.— PRIMATES. 



than the rest ; and in the hind-foot all the digits except the great-toe have 

 curved claws. The ears and eyes are large, the tail is bushy, and the two 

 teats of the female are abdominal. The aye-aye feeds both upon sugar-cane 



and large wood-boring caterpillars ; both its 

 teeth and the slender third finger being em- 

 ployed to extract the latter. 



At the present day, the lemurs of Madagascar 

 may be compared in point of size to small or 

 medium-sized monkeys, the largest of them — the 

 short-tailed endrina — not measuring much more 

 than two feet in length. The investigation re- 

 cently carried on by various explorers in the 

 island have, however, revealed the fact that up to 

 a very late period Madagascar was the home of a 

 lemur vastly exceeding in size any of the exist- 

 ing representatives of the group, and which in 

 this respect may be compared to the great West 

 African baboon known as tlie mandril. This 

 giant \eTawT{Me.gala(]cqn!i, as it is called) is known 

 by the somewhat imperfect skull and lower 

 jaw, which are about three times the dimensions 

 of those of the endrina. The interest of this 

 animal is, however, by no means confined to its comparatively gigantic pro- 

 portions, since while its skull and teeth conform in their general structural 

 features to those of the existing members of the group, they are specially 

 modified in a manner altogether peculiar. The most strik- 

 ing peculiarity connected with the skull is the extreme 

 slenderness of the hinder portion containing the brain in 

 comparison with the great elongation of the face ; the latter 

 seeming out of all proportion to the former. In this respect, 

 indeed, the skull pi'esents a curious resemblance to the dog-faced baboons of 

 Africa ; as it also does in the strongly-marked ridges it bears for the attachment 

 of powerful muscles. Such resemblances, however, it is almost needless to 

 observe, are merely superficial, and must by no means be taken as indicative 

 of any genetic relationship between the two groups ; and if a young skull 

 were forthcoming, it is probable that we should find this much less unlike 

 ordinary lemurs. Another peculiarity of the giant lemur is to be found in 

 the more lateral position and wider separation of the sockets of the eyes, 

 which are also relatively smaller than in existing forms, thus mdicating that 

 the habits of the animal were less completely nocturnal than those of the 

 latter. The molar teeth of the upper jaw are characterised by the presence 

 of only three tubercles on the crown, owing to the fusion of the two inner 

 ones of the four-columned molars of ordinary lemurs ; a few of the smaller 

 existing species having, however, teeth of a nearly similar type. Although 

 in the type skull the front teeth are wanting, the form of their sockets shows 

 that they must have been very similar in general form to those of living 

 lemurs. In many respects the skull shows a marked resemblance to that of 

 the European Tertiary lemur known as .irfnpis, a feature of especial interest 

 in regard to the origin of the Malagasy fauna from that of the Eocene Period 

 in Europe. 



The remains of the giant lemur were discovered in the great marsh of 

 Ambolisatra, and their slightly mineralised condition indicates their com- 



Tifj. 17. — The Aye-Aye 

 (Chiromys mada'jascariensis). 



-Giant Extinct 



Lemur 

 [Megaladapis). 



