Deciduous dentition of the aye aye, Daubentonia madagascariensis

Until the 1980s all interpretations of the deciduous dental formulae of the unusual and endangered prosimian primate Daubentonia madagascariensis were based on a publication more than 125 years old [Peters, 1866a]. Rather than being based on original material all later interpretations were exclusively derived from Peters' figures and descriptions. A relatively recent attempt by Luckett and Maier [1986] to establish the true milk dentition of the aye aye was based on histological evaluation of a late aye aye fetus from the collection of W.W. Hubrecht that was chemically preserved at least 80 years earlier. The death of a newborn aye aye at the Duke University Primate Center in 1992 finally made the following new evaluation of the D. madagascariensis deciduous tooth formula possible. Using X-rays and dissection, it here is demonstrated that aye ayes have one incisor, one canine, and two premolars in both the upper and in the lower milk dentition. Therefore the deciduous dental formula of Daubentonia madagascariensis should read: $${{\hbox{1i}\cdot\hbox{1c}\cdot\hbox{2p}} \over{\hbox{1i}\cdot\hbox{1c}\cdot\hbox{2p}}}.$$ © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.