Discover Life - Mammalia: Daubentoniidae

2010/02/07 02:32:50.212 US/Eastern

By Phil Myers

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Subphylum: Vertebrata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Primates

Suborder: Strepsirrhini

Family: Daubentoniidae

Members of this Family

This family contains a single species, the highly distinctive aye-aye. These animals are around 400 mm long excluding the bushy tail, which more than doubles the body length. The fur is long, woolly, and dark brown in color. The combination of bushy tail and woolly fur gives the animal a sort of unkempt, shaggy appearance. Aye-ayes have large, naked, mobile ears, a muzzle that is shorter than that of most lemurs but longer than lorises, and large eyes with yellowish brown irises.

The forefeet of aye-ayes are unique. All foretoes are long and thin, but the third is extraordinarily so due to an especially elongated metacarpal . It and all other toes except the hallux bear claws; the hallux has a nail.

Aye-ayes also have an unmistakeable skull and teeth. Unlike all other strepsirhines , they lack a toothcomb . The adult dental formula is 1/1, 0/0, 1/0, 3/3 = 18 (the deciduous dentition includes extra upper and lower incisors , premolars , and an upper canine ). The adult incisors are tremendously enlarged and evergrowing. Only their anterior surface bears enamel , so they self-sharpen as they wear in the same manner as rodent incisors. Posterior to the incisors is a diastema . The cheekteeth are flattened and have indistinct cusps. The skulls are rounded and the facial region is reduced. An interparietal is present. The postorbital bar is complete, and the foramen magnum is shifted well beneath the skull. The bullae are large and enclose the tympanic ring. The dentary is also distinctively shaped, broad, with a relatively small coronoid process but a large articular process and condyle . The condyle is shifted ventrally relative to the dentary toothrow.

Aye-ayes eat insect larvae, which they retrieve from bark and wood by gnawing holes with their rodent-like incisors, then hooking the larvae out with their enlarged third forefingers. They locate wood-boring larvae by tapping on branches with the third finger and listening for movement. They also feed on fruit, eggs, and bamboo shoots.

These animals are quadrupedal. They do not use the "vertical clinging and leaping" style of locomotion common to many other strepsirhines. Little is known about their social behavior; aye-ayes are usually seen singly or in pairs. They occasionally emit brief cries but are usually silent.

The fossil record of aye-ayes extends to the Pleistocene.

Literature and references cited

Feldhamer, G. A., L. C. Drickamer, S. H. Vessey, and J. F. Merritt. 1999. Mammalogy. Adaptation, Diversity, and Ecology. WCB McGraw-Hill, Boston. xii+563pp.

Groves, C. P. 1989. A Theory of Human and Primate Evolution. Oxford Science Publications, Clarendon Press, Oxford. xii+375 pp.

Napier, J. R., and P. H. Napier. 1985. The Natural History of Primates. British Museum (Natural History), London. 200pp.

Nowak, R.M. and J.L. Paradiso. 1983. Walker's Mammals of the World, Fourth edition. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, London.

Szalay, F. S., and E. Dodson. 1979. Evolutionary History of the Primates. Academic Press, New York. xiv+580 pp.

Thorington, R. W., Jr., and S. Anderson. 1984. Primates. Pp. 187-216 in Anderson, S. and J. K. Jones, Jr. (eds). Orders and Families of Recent Mammals of the World. John Wiley and Sons, N.Y. xii+686 pp.

Vaughan, T. A. 1986. Mammalogy. 3rd Edition. Saunders College Publishing.vii+576 pp.

Vaughan, T. A., J. M. Ryan, N. J. Czaplewski. 2000. Mammalogy. Fourth Edition. Saunders College Publishing, Philadelphia. vii+565pp.

Wilson, D. E., and D. M. Reeder. 1993. Mammal Species of the World, A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 2nd edition. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington. xviii+1206 pp.&160;

Contributors

Phil Myers (author), Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan.

2010/02/07 02:32:50.455 US/Eastern

To cite this page: Myers, P. 2000. "Daubentoniidae" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed February 09, 2010 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Daubentoniidae.html.

Disclaimer: The Animal Diversity Web is an educational resource written largely by and for college students . ADW doesn't cover all species in the world, nor does it include all the latest scientific information about organisms we describe. Though we edit our accounts for accuracy, we cannot guarantee all information in those accounts. While ADW staff and contributors provide references to books and websites that we believe are reputable, we cannot necessarily endorse the contents of references beyond our control.

Sponsored in part by the Interagency Education Research Initiative,
the Homeland Foundation and the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology .
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants DUE-0633095 and DRL-0628151.
The ADW Team gratefully acknowledges their support. Report Error — Comment
©1995-2008, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors.
All rights reserved.

Daubentoniidae

Family Daubentoniidae aye-aye

Contributors

Family Daubentoniidae
aye-aye