The cemetery of giant lemurs was discovered by anthropologists at the University of New York on the island of Madagascar. Many individual bones and whole skeletons are perfectly preserved in one of the underwater caves of the Tsimanampetsotsa National Park.
Tsimanampetsotsa is a salt lake located in the southwestern province of Tuliara. Its limestone shores are dug with caves, including underwater ones. Recently, divers have discovered many fossil bones at the bottom of one of the caves.
Paleontologists who examined the find immediately determined that the remains belong to the ancient inhabitants of the island - epyornis, giant lemurs, turtles, crocodiles, rodents and many other exotic creatures.
The contents of the underwater cave Aven provide a completely unprecedented opportunity to study extinct species, scientists say.
"The preservation of the bones is truly incredible," said the study's lead author, Brooklyn College anthropologist Alfred Rosenberg. "We have a real snapshot of both the composition of the macrofauna and of small animals."
Of the greatest interest for science are the fossil remains of giant lemurs, some of which were comparable in size to modern gorillas. The skeletons of Pachylemur and Mesopropithecus have already been found in the cave, and who knows what else the flooded underground galleries hide, the researchers do not hide their enthusiasm for this location.
According to preliminary data, bones and skeletons do not bear traces of predator attacks. How lemurs, birds and other ancient inhabitants of Madagascar ended up in the cave below the lake level remains a mystery.
A huge ancient lemur of the species Megaladapis edwardsi
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But judging by the available data, their bodies were inside without any damage, and they lost their soft tissues already at the burial site. The accumulation of bone-bearing deposits began even before the appearance of humans on the island and continued until very recently.
The richness and excellent preservation of the Malagasy fossils is absolutely extraordinary. Now, with their help, American paleontologists expect to refine their knowledge of those species that are known today only from incomplete, fragmentary finds.
And we are talking not only about lemurs - in one of the neighboring caves, for example, scientists came across the lair of the giant civet Cryptoprocta spelea. It is possible that DNA can be isolated from some of the fossils, which also greatly inspires researchers.
The underwater caves around the Cimanampetsotsa Salt Lake provide "an opportunity to do what could not have been done before," Alfred Rosenberg, who is working to uncover the mysteries of Madagascar's extinct animals, told National Geographic.
