The giant lemur Megaladapis was the size of living great
apes today, such as the orang-utan or perhaps even the
gorilla. Like all living lemurs, its fossils come from the
island of Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, although
earlier members of the lemur group occurred across North
America and Europe as well as Africa. Megaladapis had a
stout body and relatively short limbs. Weighing in at more
than 50kgillOlb, it probably clambered between large branches in the slow, deliberate manner of a sloth. There isevidence that this huge lemur
survived to at least
2,000 years ago, and possibly less than 1,000 years ago -
perhaps humans played a part in its eventual extinction.