Humans Did Not Entirely Hunt Giant Lemurs Into Extinction

Despite popular belief, humans did not entirely hunt giant lemurs living on Madagascar into extinction thousands of years ago. Ancient DNA has revealed that their small population size is partly to blame, shedding light on what factors put today's modern lemurs at risk, a new study says.

The findings were published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Aside from the impressive giant lemur, the African island of Madagascar has been home to all sorts of unusual creatures, with more than 80 percent of the island's plants and animals found nowhere else. Before humans even arrived on the island some 2,000 years ago, 10-foot-tall elephant birds, pygmy hippos, monstrous tortoises, a horned crocodile, and at least 17 species of now-extinct lemurs - some weighing a whopping 350 pounds - were roaming around.

To find out why these giant lemurs were eventually wiped out, researchers at Duke University relied on ancient DNA from lemur bones and teeth dating back 550 to 5,600 years ago. They looked at as many as 23 individuals from each of five extinct lemur species, including a giant ruffed lemur, a baboon lemur, a koala lemur and two sloth lemurs. The study also included genetic data from eight species still alive today, three of which are the largest of the modern day lemurs. (Scroll to read on...)