Babakotia
Babakotia.
Babakotia, an extinct genus of sloth lemurs, lived in the northern part of Madagascar. The name comes from the Malagasy word for the indri, to which all sloth lemurs are closely related. Its morphological traits show intermediate stages between the slow-moving smaller sloth lemurs and the suspensory large sloth lemurs, and suggest a close relationship between both groups and the extinct monkey lemurs. All sloth lemurs share many traits with living sloths, demonstrating convergent evolution. Babakotia had long forearms, curved digits, and highly mobile hip and ankle joints. It shared its range with other sloth lemurs, including Palaeopropithecus ingens and Mesopropithecus dolichobrachion. It was primarily a leaf-eater, though it also ate fruit and hard seeds. It is known only from subfossil remains and may have died out shortly after the arrival of humans on the island, but not enough radiocarbon dating has been done with this genus to know for certain.
Babakotia, an extinct genus of sloth lemurs, lived in the northern part of Madagascar. The name comes from the Malagasy word for the indri, to which all sloth lemurs are closely related. Its morphological traits show intermediate stages between the slow-moving smaller sloth lemurs and the suspensory large sloth lemurs, and suggest a close relationship between both groups and the extinct monkey lemurs. All sloth lemurs share many traits with living sloths, demonstrating convergent evolution. Babakotia had long forearms, curved digits, and highly mobile hip and ankle joints. It shared its range with other sloth lemurs, including Palaeopropithecus ingens and Mesopropithecus dolichobrachion. It was primarily a leaf-eater, though it also ate fruit and hard seeds. It is known only from subfossil remains and may have died out shortly after the arrival of humans on the island, but not enough radiocarbon dating has been done with this genus to know for certain.
