The giant aye-aye (''Daubentonia robusta'') is an extinct relative of the

aye-aye The aye-aye (''Daubentonia madagascariensis'') is a long-fingered lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar with rodent-like teeth that perpetually grow and a special thin middle finger. It is the world's largest nocturnal primate. ...

, the only other species in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

''Daubentonia''. It lived in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, appears to have disappeared less than 1,000 years ago, is entirely unknown in life, and is only known from subfossil remains. As of 2004 giant aye-aye remains consisted of 4

incisors Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, wher ...

, a

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

, and other postcranial material. Subfossils of this species have been found in the southern and southeastern portion of Madagascar, outside the range of extant aye-aye. Giant aye-ayes are believed to be very similar morphologically to the aye-aye, but 2 to 2.5 times larger, based upon jaw and incisor measurements.

References

*Nilsson, G. (1983). ''The Endangered Species Handbook.'' Subfossil lemurs Holocene extinctions Mammals described in 1935 Fossil taxa described in 1935 {{lemur-stub