Alright guys, the last installment of my discoveries in Madagascar. Please see the photo above to appreciate the lengths it took to examine this guy.
So there I was, sitting on my couch at home, when I received an email. It was my study abroad professor wanting me to do some research on this weird extinct lemur species. You guessed it, Archaeoindrii.
She told me she had this bone, (previously discussed and proved) that might be part of it. Me, being the curious bugger I am, took it on as a challenge. Open minded, but still apprehensive.
Turns out this guy is the largest guy to live on Madagascar. Well, of the primates at least. Madagascar itself used to be lush and beautiful, full of rainforest. Unfortunately, contrary to popular belief, less than 10% of that rainforest exists today. Conservations efforts have helped, but it’s not enough.
Human population is one reason that these rainforests have gone, and with that, lemurs have gone extinct as well. Including our big guy of interest, Archaeoindrii. It’s believed that human interaction is why he went extinct. That, as well as habitat loss.
There’s never enough sob story about Madagascar for me, but I’ll move on nonetheless.
It took a lot of talking to and special permission to see that skull, the one on top. I had to write a CV, resume, cover letter, all that jazz to even truly look at it.
It’s at this museum, Academie Malgache, In Antananarivo, right? Well once I was there, there was a lot of paperwork involved. ID checks, everything.
But at last, I got to examine it.
Took some measurements, photographed it carefully, turned it over and did it all over again. You want any angle of that skull, I can whip out a picture. And probably a measurement too.
Archaeoindrii was a terrestrially roaming creature, but also relied on trees. So called ‘sloth’ lemur, and the size of a male gorilla.
So what’d I do in trying to understand this guy?
I went to the only site where those fossils have been produced. I went to Ampasambazimba. Ah, and here we see a wild Luci digging in the mud:
To my contempt, we found no Archaeoindrii specimens. Lot’s of hippo, lot’s of elephant bird, even crocodile and tortoise! But that’s life. A very wise woman once said,
“Absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence.”
Those words came from my professor, who I consider my mentor.
The rest has been covered in my previous blog posts, the findings and such. Check them out, it’s pretty cool!
Now that I’m all nostalgic about it, it’s time for me to stop typing at you about it. There will for sure be mentions about the whole ordeal in later posts to come.
On to the next adventure. Before returning to Archaeoindrii at a later date, it’s time to explore another topic...
Lucillia the Upcoming Paleontologist
