Palaeopropithecus maximus Standing, 1903
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: late Holocene (Michielsen et al., 2023)
Distribution
Madagascar
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
University of Antananarivo:
UA 3815 (Meador, 2017:30)
UA 3819 (Meador, 2017:30)
UA 3820 (Meador, 2017:30)
Media
References
Alcover, Josep Antoni et al. (1998). Mammal Species of the World: Additional Data on Insular Mammals. American Museum Novitates 3248, 29 pp., 1 table.
Crowley, B. E. A refined chronology of prehistoric Madagascar and the demise of the megafauna. Quat. Sci. Rev. 29, 2591–2603 (2010).
Douglass, K. et al. A critical review of radiocarbon dates clarifies the human settlement of Madagascar. Quat. Sci. Rev. 221, 105878 (2019).
Goodman, S. M. & Jungers, W. L. Extinct Madagascar: Picturing the island’s past. (University of Chicago Press, 2014).
Herrera, J. P. & Dávalos, L. M. Phylogeny and divergence times of lemurs inferred with recent and ancient fossils in the tree. Syst. Biol. 65, 772–91 (2016).
Joseph, Grant S. and Seymour, Colleen L. (2022). Are Madagascar's obligate grazing-lawns ancient and evolved with endemic herbivores, or recently selected by introduced cattle? Biology Letters 18: 20220212. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0212
Karanth, K.P., Delefosse, T., Rakotosamimanana, B., Parsons, T.J. & Yoder, A.D. 2005 Ancient DNA from giant extinct lemurs confirms single origin of Malagasy primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 102, 5090-5095.
Kistler, L. et al. Comparative and population mitogenomic analyses of Madagascar’s extinct, giant ‘subfossil’ lemurs. J. Hum. Evol. 79, 45–54 (2015).
Kouvari, M. & van der Geer, A. A. E. Biogeography of extinction: The demise of insular mammals from the Late Pleistocene till today. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 505, 295–304 (2018).
Lemoine, Rhys Taylor, Buitenwerf, Robert, Faurby, Sören and Svenning, Jens-Christian. (2025). Phylogenetic Evidence Supports the Effect of Traits on Late-Quaternary Megafauna Extinction in the Context of Human Activity. Global Ecology and Biogeography 34(7): e70078. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.70078 [Supporting Information: Data S1]
Meador, Lindsay Renee. (2017). Who Ate the Subfossil Lemurs? A Taphonomic and Community Study of Raptor, Crocodylian and Carnivoran Predation of the Extinct Quaternary Lemurs of Madagascar. Dissertation. xvii + 388 pp.
Michielsen, Nathan M., Goodman, Steven M., Soarimalala, Voahangy, van der Geer, Alexandra A. E., Dávalos, Liliana M., Saville, Grace I., Upham, Nathan and Valente, Luis. (2023). The macroevolutionary impact of recent and imminent mammal extinctions on Madagascar. Nature Communications 14: 14. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35215-3 [Supplementary Data 1 (mammal list); Supplementary Data 6 (references)]
Orlando, L., Calvignac, S., Schnebelen, C., Douady, C.J., Godfrey, L.R. & Hänni, C. 2008 DNA from extinct giant lemurs links archaeolemurids to extant indriids. BMC Evolutionary Biology 8, 121.
Perez, V. R. et al. Evidence of early butchery of giant lemurs in Madagascar. J. Hum. Evol. 49, 722–742 (2005).
Turvey, Samuel T. (2009). Holocene mammal extinctions, pp. 41-61. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Turvey, Samuel T. and Fritz, Susanne A. (2011). The ghosts of mammals past: biological and geographical patterns of global mammalian extinction across the Holocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366(1577): 2564-2576. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2011.0020 [Supplementary Information]
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/6535/palaeopropithecus-maximus-giant-sloth-lemur