Drop what you’re doing; Neil has one of the most singularly excellent posts I have ever seen up over at microecos about the eyes of the Aye-Aye, a very rare and bizarre endangered strepsirhine primate that is truly unusual (and, although the “rodent-like” characters of the Aye-Aye are likely derived characters, famous morphologist W.E. le Gros Clark suggested in The Antecedents of Man, truly shows that primates evolved from animals like shrews). [Many thanks to those in the comments that corrected my bad phrasing] There is such a thing as being too bizarre, however, and even though habitat loss is a huge problem for these animals, so is the local mythology; the aye-aye is so weird that local legends deem them to be evil creatures, and they are often killed to prevent them as they are seem as symbols of death and evil. Now that’s enough of my yammering; check out Neil’s essay, post haste!
Laelaps
“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.” – Terry Pratchett
Who is “Laelaps”?
This is the blog of Brian Switek, a (hopefully) soon-to-be-graduating student at Rutgers University studying ecology & evolution. Here you'll find ramblings and the occasional asinine assertion involving evolution, intelligent design/creationism, conservation, paleontology, and a myriad of other topics that occupy his mind on a daily basis. What, exactly, is Laelaps? Find out here. Other questions, problems, or trauma can be addressed to evogeek_at_gmail_dot_com.
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If you are interested in reading more of these criticisms… that darwinism leads to racism… Here is the link to the “debate”: Darwinism and Racism debate on Xanga That’s a link to the specific blog where, just scroll down to see the comments.
Thanks for the kind words Brian and the linkage! Your comments make me wonder how much of the ‘rodentiness’ of Daubentonia is retained from the stem ‘euarchontoglire’ and how much is more recent specialization related to the aye-aye’s unique lifestyle. Either way, I think the animal has a lot to teach us about primate origins…Thanks again!
I’d say that the ‘rodentness’ is definitely a derived feature, not ancestral. The Lemuriformes (including Daubentonia) are undoubtedly monophyletic, and are the sister-group to Lorisiformes, so Daubentonia is snugly nestled within a whole bunch of more ordinary-looking primates.