courtesy Dennis O'Neil
As is evident by the illustration above, prosimians and humans evolved
from a fairly recent (evolutionarily speaking) common ancestor. Although
scientists have no way of knowing a concrete date, the best guess for the
division is about 55 million years ago.
The reason for the incredible physiological differences between the prosimian
lemur and other primates is due to a separation that produced rapid evolutionary
radiation. Many lemurs are found on the island of Madagascar, and
scientists have determined that these animals crossed to the island from
Africa on “floating vegetation.” Here, the animals developed into
about 50 different species. Tragically, 15 of these species became
extinct after humans populated the island 2,000 years ago.
1. Family Lemuridae – these animals are known as the “true lemurs.” These animals are mostly nocturnal and, although they may only be the size of a mouse, omnivorous.
photo courtesy DUPC
2. Family Indriidae – consists of the groups indris, avahis, and sifakas. These prosimians seem to be the most evolved, in the sense that they resemble monkeys the most. Even though they only have a vestigal tail, a characteristic most would say is absent in the prosimians, these animals are clearly in this suborder.
photo courtesy DUPC
3. Family Daubentoniidae – the only species left in this family is the aye-aye, a solitary and nocturnal creature with unique features for a primate.
photo courtesy DUPC
courtesy Dennis O'Neil
The map above shows the division between old world monkeys and the new
world monkeys. Technically, prosimians do not count as old world
monkeys, but the general area they inhabit is the same.
Prosimians live in the jungles of Africa and the island of Madagascar,
and therefore are well adapted to this habitat. They are nocturnal,
arboreal animals, feeding on both grubs and plants.
Again, almost all lemurs live on the island of Madagascar:
courtesy Dennis O'Neil
