There is a beautiful legend which speaks of
the South Atlantis, the sunken continent of
Lemuria. There, there were dense ancient jungles
inhabited by beings different from any others
ever known; unique creatures which arose in
an independent world, isolated from the rest
of the continents.
It was a land of marvels and surprises.
The animals had followed their own evolutionary
models, giving rise to prodigious beings.
Life had a second chance to experiment with
prototypes, and the results were astonishing.
There, the reptiles still ruled over the land,
the plants acquired surprising forms, and
in the thicket, hidden in the shadows of the
jungle, lived strange men, silent, graceful
ghosts, relatives of our own species, which
were given the generic name of lemurs, the
most emblematic inhabitants of Lemuria.
According to the legend, Lemuria, like Atlantis,
sank. But isolated in the Indian Ocean, a
fragment of that fabulous continent remained;
a solitary island where the animals would
jealously guard the secrets of their origins,
a refuge for a wildlife that would later astonish
the world: Madagascar.
This is a sifaka, a member of an extraordinary,
unique zoological group.
They are not monkeys, and nor are they related
to dogs, they are not insectivores, and are
entirely unlike the squirrels. Nonetheless,
they do share with us distant ancestors from
a time when the mammals fought for supremacy
over the earth.
They are lemurs, pro-simians. The very name,
a Roman word referring to spectres, gives
an idea of the mystery and legend they inspired
among naturalists and zoologists from all
over the world, before they were able to define
their taxonomy.
The legend of Lemuria is not as ancient as
Plato’s Atlantis, and therefore it took
less time for the mystery to be resolved.
Its creator, the zoologist Philip Lutley Sclater
suggested the story in 1874, and Wegener’s
theory of continental drift once and for all
destroyed the legend of the southern continent.
But despite the fact Lemuria was revealed
as simply a myth, the great doubts concerning
its origin did not end with the theories of
Wegener. Because the strange independent beings
of the island of Madagascar stubbornly refused
to conform to preconceived zoological models.
Sclater himself drew the attention of the
scientific world to the peculiarities of the
creatures of Madagascar. There, the animals
bore no similarities to those of the nearby
continent of Africa. There were no large pachyderms,
antelopes, giraffes or lions; there were no
monkeys or felines, and yet there were great
affinities between some of these creatures
and the most archaic animals of South America,
India and the Malaysia-Australia region. Where
had these beings come from? What was the origin
and the relationship of these children of
the legendary Lemuria?
While the species of the world competed in
a no-holds-barred evolutionary race, Madagascar
developed at its own pace.
Here the hunters and their prey changed more
slowly, away from the influences of new, much
more specialised species which natural selection
was creating in the different continents.
And in Madagascar the distant world of the
Triassic remained latent, producing a parallel
evolution which generated the island’s extraordinary
zoology.
A collared iguana observes a cricket that
has abandoned the safety of its tunnel.
Reptiles and invertebrates must have been
the most common living beings in what is now
Madagascar when it became independent from
the continental lands, as at that time the
earth was ruled over by the dinosaurs.
The legacy of those days remains alive here,
on the island of Madagascar, where there are
over 300 known species of reptiles, of which
almost 90% are endemic. The dinosaurs disappeared
as in the rest of the world, but the reptiles
took over and lay claim to supremacy.
These little dragons which today divide between
them the different habitats of Madagascar
indicate, however, that the children of Lemuria
hold the secret of their origins. Because
many Madagascan reptiles are related not to
the reptile families of Africa, but rather
to those that now inhabit the distant jungles
of South-America, Indo-Malaysia and Australia.
And it is there, in the heart of the still
surviving jungles of remote southern countries,
that our search for the origin of the strangest
fauna on the planet begins.
200 million years ago, the lands of the southern
super-continent Gondwana began to break apart.
This was the birth of the continents as we
know them today.
At that time, vast jungles covered the lands
of the southern hemisphere and the dinosaurs
were the undisputed masters of creation.
But there, deep in the dense Mesozoic vegetation,
hidden among the shadows of a world ruled
over by giants, already breathed small creatures
with hair, the first mammals; a lineage that
would eventually conquer 
the world.
The Australian night fills with living shadows
in the prehistoric forests of the Atherton
plateau, in the north west of the country.
Small, shy creatures like this brush-tailed
opossum must have been the precursors of all
present-day mammals.
In the jungles of Gondwana, the huge dinosaurs
simply did not notice them. But their warm-blooded
bodies, their ability to keep their children
inside them until they were completely developed,
and their astonishing adaptability were to
be the keys which would enable mammals to
diversify and take over the world.
All that was needed were the changes that
would allow them to demonstrate their evolutionary
potential. And those changes rapidly took
place.
When Gondwana broke apart, the mammals were
still scarce and primitive; a newly-arrived
group in a world which already for three thousand
million years had nurtured forms of life.
In places that have since that time remained
isolated, we can still today find clues as
to what those first mammals must have been
like, and in Australia, the largest of all,
descendents of the most ancient group of all
still survive.
This strange animal is one of the few remaining
representatives of the monotremes, a group
of mammals so primitive that they still reproduce
by laying eggs.
The isolation of Australia meant that these
ancient animals were not forced to compete
against the more modern mammals which would
develop in the still-connected continental
masses.
Today duckbill platypuses and echnids like
this one – another Australian monotreme
which looks like a prehistoric hedgehog – have
remained as testimony of the time when mammals
were just beginning their successful development.
Small insectivores, egg-laying monotremes and primitive marsupials which developed in the isolation of 
Australia were also to be found in the prehistoric jungles of Gondwana.
But fifty million years after the peculiar
mammals of Australia began their solitary
life, the primitive insectivores began diversifying,
evolving towards the groups from which would
emerge the lemurs, all the monkeys of the
world and even man: the primates.
And at this crucial point in the history of evolution, Madagascar began its existencein isolation.
The fragmentation of the continents would
mean an unprecedented revolution in the history
of life on earth. Approximately 200 million
years ago, the southern supercontinent broke
apart, creating Australia, the Antarctic,
Africa, Asia and South America. 80 million
years later, Madagascar and India separated
from Africa, then drifted for another 45 million
years before finally reaching their present
positions. And on this strange wandering island,
evolution seemed to come to a standstill.
The mammals were still a primitive prototype
in the jungles of this new Lemuria.
Like a good daughter of Gondwana, the island
of Madagascar was a territory dominated by
the reptiles and amphibians, where plants
and invertebrates formed the basis of the
food chain. Arthropods like this giant millipede
have inhabited Madagascar since its formation
as an island. Its ancestors were already to
be found in the jungles of the distant Gondwana
and since then they have made it possible
for the silent hunters of the forest to live.
A Parson’s chameleon, the largest chameleon
in the world.
There are two males on the same branch, and
inevitably they are fighting. Like two caricatures
of the colossal dinosaurs that dominated the
Jurassic world, each chameleon uses its nasal
appendage to try to throw its rival off 
the branch.
These are two descendents of those reptiles
torn from the continent of Africa when Madagascar
became independent, and perhaps the most representative;
because the chameleons have diversified here
more than any other place in the world. Today,
over half of all existing species of chameleons
live on and are endemic to the island, and
they have become the most numerous reptiles
in Madagascar.
Fights between these two giants are spectacular,
but don’t generally have serious consequences.
All the violence is concentrated on the protuberances
at the end of their heads.
By pushing and occasionally biting, the rivals
try to push each other off the branch. They
do not have powerful teeth, and their nails
are not designed for combat or hunting, so
the only consequences will be a few bruises
and one chameleon whose pride has been wounded.
All the life forms that remained on the island
were left behind as evolution hurtled on.
Time stood still here, and among the creatures
of the isolated Lemuria evolution was marked
by the ecological changes of the environment
in which the species lived. But in the rest
of the world, wherever the continental masses
remained communicated, natural selection was
imposing brutal evolutionary laws as a result of direct competition among increasingly well-prepared species
When India separated from Madagascar and crashed
into Asia, approximately 80 million years
ago, the mammals were beginning their impressive
diversification.
Major geological and climatic changes produced
new environments, new ecosystems whose resources
were available for those beings capable of
adapting to the new circumstances.
New mountain ranges broke the winds and altered
the rainfall patterns. Entire continental
masses changed the currents, altering the
climate of the whole planet. Deserts and marshes
appeared, plains were flooded and new jungles
arose. Animals and plants had to adapt or
die. And in this changing world, a group of
mammals began to emerge supreme due to its
capacity to adapt and diversify: the primates.
The modern primates are descendents of those
first mammals, those tiny insectivores that
hid in the jungles of Gondwana. Today, they
have colonised all the continents, and the
most adaptable species of all, man, has conquered
the entire planet.
In South America, still separated from the
lands to the north, the primates were isolated
and produced the so-called New World monkeys,
such as the howlers and these capuchin monkeys.
But in Africa and Asia a group which scientists
have called Old World monkeys, culminated
in the appearance of man and the large modern
pongids: the chimpanzees, the African gorillas
and the agile orang-utans of south east Asia.
The large simians, up to then the most intelligent
animals in creation, had developed from ancestral
primates subjected to constant processes of
natural selection in permanent competition
with other species.
But at a time when mammals had not even begun
to develop their incredible capacity for generating
new species, Madagascar had separated from
Africa and had remained isolated in the Indian
Ocean. How then can we explain the existence
there of the enigmatic pro-simians which we
now call lemurs?
A broad-billed roller stands watchful guard
in the Analamazaotra jungle, in the east of
Madagascar. For the birds, it was easy to
fly to the island, crossing over the Mozambique
Channel, but when they arrived, they found
Madagascar already had other inhabitants.
And some of their descendents are those this
roller is observing.
Today, there are almost 85 species of snake
in Madagascar. When the island formed, among
the snakes that remained here there was not
a single poisonous one, and their descendents
to this day remain loyal to their origins.
But what worries the roller, which has just
completed its nest, is not the poison. Almost
all Madagascan snakes like eggs, and some
have developed into skilful climbers.
This Ithycyphus, which the locals call the
“fandrefiala” is one of the most agile
tree-climbing snakes in the jungles of Madagascar.
Despite the thorny bark that surrounds the
nest of the roller, the snake climbs up, testing
the air with its forked tongue.
But what the Ithycyphus does not know is that
the mother is watching his every move, and
it is one thing to steal the eggs from a nest,
quite another to challenge a broad-billed
determined to defend her offspring.
When Madagascar became an island, the animals
in its interior adapted to the conditions
of its different ecosystems in order to avoid
falling prey to the enemies that shared their
isolation. And one of the most effective adaptations
of all was camouflage.
The constant vigilance of the roller detects
a small gecko. These inoffensive reptiles
were one of the groups that chose camouflage.
But in the jungles of Madagascar, you need
to be constantly on the alert, because your
enemies too may have learnt to hide.
Looking just like a branch moved by the wind,
this hognose snake knows how to wait patiently,
trusting in its extraordinary disguise.
Among the dense vegetation, death slowly approaches
its prey, advancing slightly then freezing,
again turning into a branch, while the roller,
knowing her eggs are safe, is a silent witness
to the drama unfolding below.
the drama unfolding below.
The gecko feels safe among the leaves and,
without realising, stands right in the jaws
of its mortal enemy. And in the isolated world
of Lemuria there are no second chances.
The hognose snake is not poisonous and so
cannot rapidly kill its prey, and has to attempt
to choke it or swallow it alive.
Little by little, the hunter moves the head
of its prey into a position which makes it
possible to begin swallowing it.
The gecko fights with the last strength of desperation,
because once its head is inside the snake
it will be impossible for it to breathe and
it will die. A futile struggle. The hognose
snake now holds it firm, and is an expert
hunter. It knows time is on its side, and
again it waits. Now, its prey cannot breathe
and realises its strength is running out.
Before it has been swallowed entirely, the
little gecko will already have died.
The invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians
of Madagascar already lived here when the
island separated from Africa 165 million years
ago. The birds and the bats easily flew here,
crossing the 400 kilometres of the Mozambique
Channel. But the great enigma of the island,
to which scientists have still not found an
answer, is the origin of its land mammals.
This is a brown lemur, one of the 33 known
species of lemur that today live in Madagascar.
Just a short distance away, another lemur,
in this case a black and white one, observes
its small, noisy relatives.
All lemurs are herbivores and insectivores,
and if resources are abundant, they avoid
competition, being tolerant and even playful
with other species. But this black and white
lemur, who just wants a bit of peace and quiet,
doesn’t seem to be at all amused by his
neighbours.
The lemurs are the most representative animals
of Madagascar, and the ones with the most
mysterious origin.
In evolutionary terms, they are closer to
the ancestral primates than more modern types
of simians, and their appearance and behaviour
has led man to consider them, since the time
they were discovered, as strange beings halfway
between animals and spirits, which has earned
them their name – lemur – a Latin word
meaning “the spirit of the dead”.
Nonetheless, these agile pro-simians are quite
simply the result of an evolutionary path
different from that of the monkeys, large
simians and human beings, with which they
share distant common ancestors.
The lemurs are not the only land mammals in
Madagascar.
Among the half-light of the jungle floor,
a group of ring-tailed mongooses approaches,
sniffing in search of small prey.
A family of lemurs attentively observes them.
The mongooses do not pose a threat for the
lemurs, but their appearance is very similar
to that of the civet, the largest carnivores
in Madagascar, and it’s best to make absolutely
sure, and not let down your guard.
In Madagascar there are only nine species
of carnivores, and all of them except the
civets, which were introduced by man from
Asia approximately 2,000 years ago, are endemic
to the island.
The crowned lemur doesn’t take its eye off
them. These ring-tailed mongooses feed on
insects, eggs and small rodents, so for the
family of lemurs they are completely inoffensive.
So, both families ignore each other and the
mongooses and crowned lemurs go their separate
ways, continuing their search for food.
Except for the bats, which flew here, and
those introduced by man since he first settled
on the island, the origins of Madagascan mammals
remains an enigma. 
All of them are unique
in the world, and all of them appeared after
Madagascar had separated from the continent,
so scientists continue to come up with theories
in response to a simple but inexplicable question:
how did they get here?
400 kilometres of open sea separate the island
from the African continent. This was the challenge
for mammals that wanted to reach a land where
there was no competition. Today, there are
two theories as to how they could have done
it: one maintains that between 45 and 26 million
years ago, when it is believed the mammals
of Madagascar began to evolve independently,
there were two land passes in the Mozambique
Channel, which the mammals simply crossed
on foot. But the most widespread theory speaks
of a more exciting adventure: a journey across
the Channel on small islands of vegetation
or floating branches.
Like this intrepid gecko, small mammals could
also have drifted across the sea and colonised
the promised land of Madagascar. And those
involuntary sailors would have been the origin
of the diversity of endemic mammals on the
island today.
This family of ring-tailed lemurs is scuttling
around the spiny forest of the Berenty Private
Reserve, in the south of the country. No other
lemur spends so much time on the ground as
the ring-tailed ones, probably due to the
aridity and precariousness of the habitat
in which they live.
The ring-tailed lemurs are the most and best
studied of all Madagascan mammals. The naturalists
that began to observe their behaviour at the
start of the 1960’s discovered that they
were the most easily observable species because
they are diurnal and spend more time on the
ground than any other lemur.
 The vegetation
of the spiny forest in which they live does
not provide food throughout the year, and
what food there is available is generally
very dispersed and they need to look everywhere
in order to find it.
Like the spiny forest in which the ring-tailed
lemurs live, the different ecosystems of Madagascar
played a considerable part in the diversification
of all the animals of the island. Its geographic
position and the rock formation which divides
it created very different climatic regions.
From north to south and east to west, Madagascar
becomes drier and warmer, and along this climatic
gradient arose humid jungles, swamp areas,
semi-desert regions and spiny forests like
this one. And in all of them, evolution gradually
created unique creatures which would not appear
anywhere else in the world
It has been calculated that in Madagascar
there are close to 200,000 different species
of living beings, of which 150,000 are exclusive
to the island.
Such is the power of this parallel evolution
adapted to the conditions of the legendary
Lemuria, that each group shows extraordinary
diversity of species which have developed
in the course of thousands of years of isolation.
Of the 135 species of chameleons that exist
in the world, over half live exclusively in
Madagascar.
They are the most specialised lizards in the
world, the ones best adapted to life in the
trees. Their flat bodies enable them to move
easily among the branches and absorb heat
by exposing it sideways to the sun. Their
prehensile tails help stabilise them on their
risky movements around the treetops, and the
fingers of their hands have fused together
in two opposable groups by means of which
they cling to the trunks, and so climb with
total security.
They are expert hunters, camouflage taken
to the extreme. Their bodies change colour.
Their shapes are an imitation of the surrounding
environment. Their immobility turns them into
branches and leaves. And when they move they
look just like a part of the tree, rocked
by the wind.
Almost all the characteristics of their lizard
bodies have been modified in order to better
adapt to the environment in which they live.
Here, in Madagascar, they have developed their
biological potential to the full; all the
possibilities that the surroundings and genetics
have been able to combine.
And the result is extraordinary chameleons,
ranging from this enormous Parson’s chameleon,
over 60 cm. long, to the tiny members of the
Brookesia genus, the smallest and most astonishing
chameleons in the world.
The Brookesia are quite unlike any other chameleons,
and not just in terms of size. While other
species live in the trees, they prefer the
dead leaves of the jungle floor. And it is
precisely these leaves that their tiny bodies,
no longer than 35 mm, imitate.
While the rest of the chameleons compete for
the trees of the jungle, the Brookesia have
an entire world for themselves. They have
had to pay a high price for this achievement:
they cannot radically change colour, and their
tails are only partially prehensile. But the
Brookesia do not need these skills in a world
of dry leaves. And for as long as the jungle
remains, this tiny chameleon’s world is
safe.
Madagascar continues to change.
In the interior, different jungles, mountains
and wetlands conserve the unique natural heritage
of a world of independent evolution.
There are more endemic species here than any
other place on earth, and that means that
each animal, each plant and each ecosystem
are irreplaceable pieces in the global ecology
of our planet.
The world that astonished Sclater, the inhabitants
of the enigmatic Lemuria, are as strange as
ever, as astonishing as ever, and as fragile
as ever. In the singular Madagascar, they
all live in a world for which there is no
substitute anywhere else on earth and that,
though it makes them extraordinary, also means
they are extremely vulnerable.
Evolution continues to act with slow but unstoppable
force. The changes that led to these sifakas
or any other animal or plant in the world,
including our own species, have not come to
an end. But that life force of never-ending
changes requires time, a great deal of time.
And the drastic changes that man is causing
in a matter of just a few years could break
forever evolutionary lines which began with
the origin of life on earth.
In Madagascar every corner contains fresh
surprises. Every rock, every plant, every
fragment of soil and every trunk of the jungle
may contain worlds that science still has
not discovered or understood.
They are unknown universes and different living
beings which we are now beginning to appreciate.
And each one of these hidden creatures, each
one of these apparently insignificant forms
of life sustains and contributes to the development
of all life on the island.
Many of the living beings of Madagascar still
remain to be discovered. They are secrets
that Lemuria still keeps for its ghosts, for
the silent beings that arose from millions
of years of solitude.
In the Atlantis of the south, night is drawing in.
The Madagascan night reveals another life
that until very recently had remained hidden
to the eyes of man. The kingdom of the shadows
brings the cover needed by these timid creatures
of the dark. The spirits of the legends turn
flesh. And life returns to the prehistoric
jungles of Lemuria.
The most recent genetic analyses indicate
that all the lemurs derive from a single colonising
species similar to the present-day mouse lemurs
or dwarf lemurs like this one.
In the cold light of the moon, the sportive
lemurs once more become active and search
for fruits and small insects in the Madagascan
night.
Dwarf lemurs and sportive lemurs, giant rats,
tenrecs and mouse lemurs - the children of
Lemuria again come to life.
They are living shadows, animals of mysterious
appearance and habits which have aroused fear
among the indigenous population since those
first 
human settlements, 2,000 years ago.
After many generations living on the island, the Madagascan natives also have their theory of the origin of such strange animals. 
According to their legends, a man and a woman once walked together through the jungle. 
 Shortly afterwards, the woman gave birth to a great number of children.
As they grew, some of these children began to cut down trees and grow rice, while others continued to feed only on the leaves of the jungle.
 As time went by, the former began to fight amongst themselves: they were the ancestors of man. 
 The others, horrified, sought refuge among the treetops and turned into lemurs. 
And since then, it has been known that humans and lemurs are brothers. 
Of all the present-day lemurs none is as strange and mysterious as the aye-aye.
 They form a separate family with a single species and their morphology and habits set them apart from all other pro-simians. 
It is the largest nocturnal lemur and the last living examples hide in the different types of jungle of Madagascar. 
 It has a strange appearance, and its nocturnal habits have inspired superstitions among native Madagascans.
 For some, they are the reincarnation of ancestral spirits and bring good luck,
 but for many others they are an evil omen, and immediately kill them
an unjust punishment for the crime of simply being different from all the other creatures of the forest. 
A long, fleshless middle finger helps it to extract the pulp from the canes
and the larvae from the trunks where it feeds.
 No other lemur has such a tool and no other has teeth which continue to grow, 
more like those of a rodent than a pro-simian. 
Today, the aye-aye, probably the strangest mammal in the world, is in danger of extinction. 
 Like the rest of the lemurs and all the other animals of this independent world,
it is being deprived of the exclusive habitats that made it the way it is
determined its evolution and have kept it alive to this day. 
And the reason is another mammal with which it shares distant ancestors,
 those small beings of the jungles of Gondwana.
 Its arrival brought cataclysmic changes. And dark shadows fell over the extraordinary children of Lemuria.
The action of man is devastating the wildlife of Madagascar.
In the first thousand years of human presence on the island two dozen species of large animals were destroyed, 
including fifteen species of lemurs.
Creatures like the elephant bird, the largest that has ever lived on earth,
or a lemur the size of a gorilla disappeared for ever at the hands of those invaders who came from Asia.
Since the appearance of man in Madagascar, 80% of the original vegetation cover has disappeared.
 And in just the second half of the twentieth century 50% of the jungles
that cover this country have been cut down.
And while its ecosystems are being razed and burnt,
 Madagascar continues to astonish the scientific community, which each year discovers new species.
These bamboo lemurs, the smallest of all diurnal lemurs,
 are an example of the critical situation of the exclusive animals of the island.
Their jungle habitat is being cut down to provide more crop land 
because only in the jungle areas is there sufficient humidity to be able to plant rice.
 As they remove the protective vegetation, men hunt them because in the diet of these impoverished,
needy people proteins are always welcome; and those that are not hunted are captured and sold as pets or,
even worse, are burnt to death when they set light to the impenetrable bamboo thickets. 
In the indigenous legends of Madagascar,
men and lemurs are brothers separated by the vicissitudes of life.
 One abandoned the jungle and became the master of the world.
The other remained and became a rarity, an ancient anachronism in a world of constant changes.
And today, Madagascar has again brought them together to jointly decide their future. 
Madagascar is terribly fragile. 
Its habitats are different from all others on the planet. 
They are exclusive worlds with their own, parallel evolution;
 delicate and irreplaceable places remote from the influences that shaped the world and the animals of the rest of the planet. 
And man is now the decisive factor on which its future depends, the future of all its species. 
This is a world of endemic species, the demonstration of diversity, 
of the unlimited creative power of life.
Here, new forms remain hidden, 
 new evolutionary possibilities that would be unviable without the isolation
 this island has enjoyed for many thousands of years. 
 And it also contains key pieces in the puzzle of the origin of our own species, 
of the evolutionary steps which led us to becoming human beings. 
Humanity anxiously looks to the infinite solitude of the universe dreaming of other inhabited worlds. 
 And, paradoxically, an entire world of fascinating, 
unknown creatures is disappearing before our very eyes,
taking with it the secret of the origin of those mysterious children of the legendary Lemuria.
