Lemurs belong to the primate order and are native to Madagascar and there are nearly 100 species of lemurs today. Prior to humans arriving on Madagascar approximately 2000 years ago, there were many more species of lemurs. Even today, many of the species of lemurs are threatened with extinction as they have to adapt to the loss of their habitat (they now only have 10% of the area to live in they once had) and they are also hunted, which has had a significant impact on their survival in Madagascar.
There is great variety and diversity across the species of lemurs. The world's smallest primate, Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, is a lemur and at one time in recent history one of the largest primate was also a lemur, although now extinct. They share many traits of the ancestral primates but they evolved independently on Madagascar.
