Prosimians

[stemturtle]

Prosimians traditionally included the enchanting primates that are not monkeys or apes. Now tarsiers are classified closer to monkeys than to lemurs. Recent primate taxonomy has the following 2 suborders:
Strepsirrhini (wet nosed) - previously known as prosimians, excludes tarsiers
     Infraorder Lemuriformes - lemurs
     Infraorder Lorisiformes - lorises and bushbabies
Haplorhini (dry nosed) - tarsiers and simians
     Infraorder Tarsiiformes - tarsiers
     This thread includes tarsiers, but not monkeys and apes.   

First, let's dispel a misnomer. The flying lemurs are not primates. They belong to order Dermoptera, closely related to primates.


Malayan flying lemur or colugo, Galeopterus variegatus, by Colorata, length 1.5 inches or 3.8 cm.

I do not own the mythical set of lemurs by Play Visions. (Update: see reply #17.) See photos at Toy Animal Info.
Let's look at examples of species, grouped to show relative size of figures.


Lemuriformes
Aye-aye, Daubentonia madagascariensis, by Colorata
Coquerel's sifaka, Propithecus coquerel, by  K & M
Verreaux's sifaka, Propithecus verreauxi, by Furuta Choco Egg Series 6


Ring-tailed lemur, Lemur catta, by Yowie UK Series 2
Black-and-white ruffed lemur, Varecia variecia, by Kaiyodo Yotsubato
Red ruffed lemur, Varecia rubra, by K & M
The Schleich guy is about 1.75 inches or 4.5 cm. He is a primate but not a prosimian.


Lorisiformes
Senegal bushbaby, Galago senegalensis, by Yowie UK Series 2
Slow loris, Nyticebus sp., by Takara Tomy A.R.T.S.
Tarsiiformes
Spectral tarsier, Tarsius spectrum (syn. tarsier), by Furuta Choco Egg Series 7
Tetonius homunculus †, by Yujin, Miracle Planet, aka Infraorder Omomyiformes,
an Eocene prosimian with adaptations for leaping like tarsiers.
The Schleich guy is for scale.

[brontodocus]

A nice idea for a new thread, Helge! stemturtle  And you already brought in quite some variety to the subject, too. The bushbaby is completely new to me, never seen the figure before. Since the term "Prosimian" has become obsolete due to paraphyly I'm a bit cautious using it but of course everyone knows what is meant by it. With the inclusion of the colugo, this thread may refer to something we might call non-simian Primatomorpha, i.e. flying lemurs and all primates other than, yes, true monkeys and apes. May I suggest we should also include the Scandentia (treeshrews, although I don't know if figures exist)? That way we would have a topic about all Euarchonta excluding higher primates - if treeshrew figures show up we'd have a thread to put them into.

Personally, I only have very few figures that may fit in here but I would like to add two more ring-tailed lemurs (seems to be the species represented most frequently as a toy figure):



Lemur catta Linnaeus, 1758; Ring-tailed Lemur. Above: Colorata Endangered Animals - Wild Animals Vol. 1 figure No. 5. Total length of adult approx. 100 mm, snout-vent length 43 mm, scale approx. 1:9 - 1:11.
Below: Furuta Choco Egg Funny Animals Series 7 figure No. 39. Total length 95 mm, snout-vent length 40 mm, scale approx. 1:10 - 1:11.

EDIT: I don't know how I thought this thread was started by postsaurischian while it was instead by stemturtle... my apologies!

[stemturtle]

Brontodocus, I am not aware of any figure of a treeshrew.
Thanks for posting the photos of ring-tailed lemurs.

[sauroid]

mojo fun ring tailed lemur

[stemturtle]

Sauroid, the Mojo ring-tailed lemur has excellent detail.

[Jetoar]

Excellent topic. I only have the ring tailed lemur of AAA  .

[stemturtle]

Silky sifaka, Propithecus candidus, by Nayab, height about 1.75 inches or 4.5 cm.

This identification was provided by Tapir & Friends, which has a new site called Collectible Wildlife Gifts .
My confidence in the ID improved after watching the TV documentary Madagascar from 2011 by David Attenborough.
Some of these lemurs appeared to have a crown that is darker than pure white, but not a distinctive marking like Verreaux's sifaka.

[stemturtle]

Aye-aye, Daubentonia madagascariensis, by Nayab
Length about 6 inches or 15 cm.

The scientific name is marked on the belly, but not the maker name. This one came from a lot on eBay. Several years ago Tapir and Friends sold this figure. I think there was also one about half this size, but I gave it away.

Edit: manufacturer Nayab verified in catalog.

[stemturtle]

The small version of the aye-aye turned up in my granddaughter's toy box.

Aye-aye, Daubentonia madagascariensis, by Nayab, small version


Comparison of size large and small aye-ayes

[postsaurischian]

  Wonderful thread! I have totally missed it until now.
Unfortunately I cannot see your latest pic, stemturtle.

Here's a small group of Kattas (Ring-tailed lemurs)
The pair in the front is by AAA and the one in the background by Safari.

[stemturtle]

Hi postsaurischian, thanks for posting the lemur photos.
I reduced the size of the old image and replaced it. I think there was a coding error.
If you still have trouble seeing it, please let me know.

[widukind]

[widukind]

The small version of the aye-aye turned up in my granddaughter's toy box.

Aye-aye, Daubentonia madagascariensis, by Nayab, small version


Comparison of size large and small aye-ayes

Interesting, i dont know it before

[sbell]

The small version of the aye-aye turned up in my granddaughter's toy box.

Aye-aye, Daubentonia madagascariensis, by Nayab, small version


Comparison of size large and small aye-ayes

Interesting, i dont know it before

I think I had that one, but didn't know it was an Aye-Aye. The fingers don't quite match.

[stemturtle]

Widukind, thanks for posting your photos of prosimians. I am happy to see that you have some real treasures.

Sbell, the small Nayab aye-aye is not marked with an ID as is the large version. These are not very accurate depictions.

[widukind]

Widukind, thanks for posting your photos of prosimians. I am happy to see that you have some real treasures.

Sbell, the small Nayab aye-aye is not marked with an ID as is the large version. These are not very accurate depictions.

Thank you, it looks we have the same taste

[stemturtle]

Black-and-white ruffed lemur, Varecia variegata (Papo #50234)

The ID is not marked on the figure, but it is obviously the black-and-white ruffed lemur because the only other ruffed species is the red ruffed, Varecia rubra. Papo did a nice job of sculpting the fur. Released April 2018.



Comparison of black-and-white ruffed lemur (Papo) and red ruffed lemur (K&M).

[stemturtle]

Strepsirrhini
Lemurs and Prosimians (Play Visions), set of 8, 1999

The set of Lemurs and Prosimians is a holy grail for collectors. After nearly 2 decades, I was thrilled to find the figures offered for sale on the online market. The seller of my set currently lists it out of stock. You could try Taobao.

The models appear to have been inspired by images from the first edition of Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, even using some of the poses. Thanks to widukind for sharing pictures with me from that book. Previously, he posted photos on this thread for six of the PV strepsirrhines, missing only the ring-tailed lemur (#4) and the ruffed lemur (#5). Images of those two lemurs are included below, plus an itemized list of species with comments.   


1. Potto, Perodicticus potto
       Unique figure. The African equivalent of a loris.
2. Indri, Indri indri
       Unique figure. The largest lemur that lost its tail.
3. Coquerel's sifaka, Propitecus coquereli
       Marked Verreaux's Sifaka, P. verreauxi. See start of thread for figure by Furuta.
       Subspecies P. verreauxi coquereli was granted full species status in 2001.    
4. Ring-tailed lemur, Lemur catta
       Popular with toy manufacturers.



5. Black-and-white ruffed lemur, Varecia variegata
      Ruffed Lemur is marked on the figure.
      Subspecies V. v. variegata has a white back with black on the sides of the shoulders and hips.
6. Aye-aye, Daubentonia madagascariensis
       My favorite. Wins first prize for bizarre.
7. Brown greater galago, Otolemur crassicaudatus
       Unique species. Greater Bushbaby is marked on the figure.
8. Black-and-white ruffed lemur, Varecia variegata.   
      White Girdled Ruffed Lemur is marked on the figure.
      Subspecies V. v. subcincta has a dark-colored back, bisected by a white
      belt around the waist. Uncommonly, brown can be a color variant for black.
   
When my daughter was young, she liked to perform the dance of the sifaka by hopping sideways. The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. 

[sbell]

So...I came across this today. It is from a Taobao shop that has several Safari, papo, Schleich, etc models. I don't own it, but is has me curious (of the few modern non-carnovrans left in my collection, lemurs are among them)



It is labelled 'langur' but...no. And I don't recognize who it might be copied from. It does look lemur-ish to me, but that's about it (certainly not a langur)

And ideas?

[stemturtle]

...
It is labelled 'langur' but...no. And I don't recognize who it might be copied from. It does look lemur-ish to me, but that's about it (certainly not a langur)

And ideas?

You're right, Sbell, it's not a langur, which is a kind of leaf monkey.
I cannot name a species of lemur that is an exact match for this replica.
I ordered one that should arrive any day. Then I will post a photo to show if the belly is marked with an ID. Looks very similar to the ring-tailed lemur by Wild Safari, 292229. We'll see.