For the first time in history, a team of scientists hassequenced the genome of twelve individuals belonging to three different populations of de aye-ayes (Daubentonia madagascarensis), a type of lemur that lives only on the island of Madagascar and is considered one of the strangest and most fascinating animals in the world. Use an incisor tooth, which is continuously growing, toeat away the bark of dead trees. And then it is helped by athin and flexible finger to extract insect larvae from inside the wood, which is their main food. Therefore, this mammal competes with woodpeckers for food. It is nocturnal and quite solitary, which usually complicates its study in the wild.
The new analyzes performed on his DNA, published in the magazinePNAS, reveal that the current African and European human populations present a genetic distance lower than that which exists today between the populations of the aye-ayes of the north and the east of Madagascar. The researchers suggest thatboth groups of lemurs separated approximately 2,300 years ago, around the time humans colonized the island.
This research on the aye-aye is expected to contribute to the conservation of this species and its biodiversity, especially at this time when the destruction of its habitat in Madagascar is taking place at an accelerated rate. Besides the fact that lnatives consider the aye-aye an animal possessed by evil spirits– due to their sickly appearance, large ears, strange middle finger and bulging eyes – all contribute to being hunted and their extinction accelerated.
