- Velizar Simeonovski
- A giant lemur in Ampasambazimba, Madagascar, approximately 2,000 years ago, with elephant birds
One terrible day about 3,700 years ago, a herd of dwarf hippos stopped to drink at the Betsiboka River in northern Madagascar. They got swept up in the current and pulled into the Anjohibe cave. The Anjohibe is underground and is very, very dark. The hippos panicked. In their rush to escape, they ran into stalactites and stalagmites and trampled each other and also the bats that were living inside the cave. The scene must have been mayhem. The hippos never found their way out. Now, thousands of years later, their bones remain on the cave floor. In the meantime, the dwarf hippos became extinct.
“The [giant lemur’s] skull had been likened to everything from a cow to a koala,” adds Jungers. “Velizar’s rendition was the most convincing and compelling head I’ve ever seen.”
“At one site,” says Goodman, “the density of eggshells is like Roman pottery.”
“The extinction process is still going on,” Jungers adds. “I don’t know what kind of book we’ll be capable of writing in a couple of decades.”
