The sportive lemurs are the medium sized primates that make up the Lepilemuridae family. The family consists of only one extant
genus, Lepilemur, as well as the extinct genus Megaladapis. They are closely related to the other lemurs and exclusively live
on the island of Madagascar. For a time, this family was named Megaladapidae, but the current name was given precedence.
The Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like
teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the world's largest nocturnal
primate, and is characterized by its unusual method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the
wood and inserts its elongated middle finger to pull the grubs out.
Cheirogaleidae is the family of strepsirrhine primates that contains the various dwarf and mouse lemurs. Like all other lemurs,
cheirogaleids live exclusively on the island of Madagascar.
Lemuridae is a family of prosimian primates native to Madagascar, and one of five families commonly known as lemurs. These
animals were thought to be the evolutionary predecessors of monkeys and apes, but this is no longer considered correct. The
family gets its name from the Ancient Roman belief that the animals were ghosts or spirits, because many species are nocturnal.
The Indridae (also spelled Indriidae) are a family of strepsirrhine primates. They are medium to large sized lemurs with only
four teeth in the toothcomb instead of the usual six. Indriids, like all lemurs, live exclusively on the island of Madagascar.
The group was once much larger, and, in addition to the thirteen species living today, also contains eleven extinct species
in six genera. Most if not all were larger animals, called 'sloth lemurs'.
