Because of these threats and their declining numbers, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers lemurs to be the world's most endangered mammals, noting that as of 2013 up to 90% of all lemur species confront the threat of extinction in the wild within the next 20 to 25 years. Although local traditions, such as fady, generally help protect lemurs and their forests, illegal logging, economic privation and political instability conspire to thwart conservation efforts. These are typically larger than extant lemurs, with the largest, Archaeoindris, being the size of a gorilla. Many lemur species have already gone extinct in the last 2000 years due to human activity, and are collectively referred to as the " subfossil lemurs". Many lemur species remain endangered due to habitat loss and hunting.
Lemurs are important for research because their mix of ancestral characteristics and traits shared with anthropoid primates can yield insights on primate and human evolution. Initially hindered by political issues on Madagascar during the mid-1970s, field studies resumed in the 1980s. Modern studies of lemur ecology and behavior did not begin in earnest until the 1950s and 1960s. Lemur research during the 18th and 19th centuries focused on taxonomy and specimen collection. Two species of lemurs may coexist in the same forest due to different diets. Most eat a wide variety of fruits and leaves, while some are specialists. They also have seasonal breeding and female social dominance.
Lemurs have a relatively low basal metabolic rate, and as a result may exhibit dormancy such as hibernation or torpor. Lemurs are generally the most social of the strepsirrhine primates, and communicate more with scents and vocalizations than with visual signals. As with all strepsirrhine primates, they have a "wet nose" ( rhinarium). However, their brain-to-body size ratio is smaller than that of anthropoid primates. Lemurs share many common basal primate traits, such as divergent digits on their hands and feet, and nails instead of claws (in most species). Lemurs range in weight from the 30-gram (1.1 oz) mouse lemur to the 9-kilogram (20 lb) indri.
BOTANICULA LEMUR FULL
Most species have been discovered or promoted to full species status since the 1990s however, lemur taxonomic classification is controversial and depends on which species concept is used.
Until shortly after humans arrived on the island around 2,000 years ago, there were lemurs as large as a male gorilla. Due to Madagascar's highly seasonal climate, lemur evolution has produced a level of species diversity rivaling that of any other primate group. Lemurs share resemblance with other primates, but evolved independently from monkeys and apes. They chiefly live in trees and are active at night. Most existing lemurs are small, have a pointed snout, large eyes, and a long tail. They are endemic to the island of Madagascar. Lemurs ( / ˈ l iː m ər/ ( listen) LEE-mər) (from Latin lemures – ghosts or spirits) are wet-nosed mammals of the superfamily Lemuroidea ( / l ɛ m j ʊ ˈ r ɔɪ d i ə/), divided into 8 families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species.
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