#extinct lemurs

This robust, 100 pound (45kg) lemur is often called the sloth lemur, for its habit of hanging upside-down from branches like so. It also ate mostly leaves, as well as some fruits and nuts. However, Palaeopropithecus is thought to have been much more active than modern sloths- it also used its powerful arms to swing from tree to tree like an ape!

Often called the monkey lemur, this large (45lb/20kg) extinct lemur has traits convergently evolved with cercopithecine monkeys like baboons and macaques. It is thought to have been one of the most terrestrial lemurs, commonly walking quadrupedally across the ground. It probably ate fruit, seeds, plants, and small animals.

While Madagascar now sports relatively small animals, just a few thousand years ago it was home to some impressive megafauna as well. Built like a gorilla and weighing some 350 pounds (160kg), Archaeoindris was the largest lemur to ever live. It was probably a semi-arboreal herbivore. It, as well as many other now-extinct lemurs, would have been encountered by the first inhabitants of Madagascar.