The Conversation

Fri Mar 29

Last of the giants: What killed off Madagascar's megafauna a thousand years ago?

Written by Nick Scroxton, Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Paleoclimatology, University of Massachusetts Amherst

A modern mouse lemur *Microcebus* sits upon the cranium of an extinct *Megaladapis* lemur.Dao Van Hoang www.daovanhoang.com

Giant 10-foot-tall elephant birds, with eggs eight times larger than an ostrich’s. Sloth lemurs bigger than a panda, weighing in at 350 pounds. A puma-like predator called the giant fosa.

They sound like characters in a...

Last of the giants: What killed off Madagascar's megafauna a thousand years ago?

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