The taxonomic attributions of giant subfossil lemur bones from Ampasambazimba: Archaeoindris and Lemuridotherium

Abstract

Archaeoindris fontoynonti, the largest of the subfossil lemurs of Madagascar and, indeed, the largest-known prosimian, was comparable in body size to the gorilla. This rare genus, known only from the subfossil site of Ampasambazimba in central Madagascar (Itasy basin), is poorly understood not merely because few bones have been attributed to it, but because some of the past attributions have been faulty. Some Megaladapis grandidieri postcranials have been attributed to Archaeoindris. This article reviews the known fossil postcranial remains of Archaeoindris and evaluates attributions in the literature. Only six long bones (including the nearly complete adult femur originally called Lemuridotherium) actually belong to Archaeoindris; all are in the collections of the Académie Malgache. Archaeoindris postcranials are not at all similar to those of Megaladapis. Instead they far more strongly resemble those of Palaeopropithecus, another giant fossil indroid about the size of a chimpanzee.