Lemuroid

A few recent discoveries, however, expand the temporal range of both lemuroid and lorisoid primates back to the early Tertiary.

The lemuroid dentition is also closely similar to that of the greater glider in having a greater number of cutting edges on the upper molars compared with the common ringtail.

1. In the Paleocene we find remains of small animals intermediate between the tree-shrews and the lemurs, and at the end of the Paleocene the first true Primates, small lemuroid forms.

In M. laniger the canine and most anterior premolar are more equal than in any other Lermuroid, or indeed than in any other Primate except Man.

Supernumary or vestigal mammae may occur anywhere along the mammary line extinding from axilla to groin. Among lemuroids, however (cf. Shultz 1948), usually one but frequently up to three well-developed mammary pairs are pectoral (including axial), one pair abdominal and one or two pairs inguinal.

At a meeting of the Royal Society held on June 15, 1893, C.I. Forsyth Major descirbed the skull of an extinct Malagasy primate, the first to come to scientific attention (Major, 1894). Since that time, the subfossil remains of some six genera and 12 species of extinct lemuroids have been recovered in Madagascar, many of them represented by quite abundant material.