Fabio Alfieri

File:Megaladapis edwardsi skeleton.JPG - Wikimedia Commons

Strikingly, the largest koala-lemur emerges as a suspensory taxon. This would place it among the largest mammals known with this locomotor specialization, rivalled today only by orangutans!

Stay tuned for more work on these bizarre extinct primates!

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Me...

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Femoral data identify suspensory/bridging arboreal species (tree sloths, orangutans, lorises). Inferring extinct taxa's locomotion, we confirmed previously proposed sloth-lemurs' suspensory habits

(Figure from Alfieri et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0), doi.org/10.1093/zool...)

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This allowed us to assess and statistically test how this anatomical level co-varies with locomotion in extant species.

(Figure from Alfieri et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0), doi.org/10.1093/zool...)

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We then quantified humeral/femoral trabecular bone in extant mammals and extinct lemurs. For the latter, we used traditional and more recent approaches to clean fossil trabecular bone structure.

(Figure from Alfieri et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0), doi.org/10.1093/zool...)

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We first identified links between limb trabecular bone and locomotion in a broad mammalian sample. We used published quantitative behavioural data to define ad-hoc locomotor categories.

(Figure from Alfieri et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0), doi.org/10.1093/zool...)

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The locomotor behaviour of subfossil Malagasy sloth-lemurs (Strepsirrhini: Indriidae) and koala-lemurs (Strepsirrhini: Megaladapidae): new insights from limb trabecular bone Abstract. The locomotion of Malagasy Quaternary subfossil lemurs, including palaeopropithecines (‘sloth-lemurs’) and megaladapids (‘koala-lemurs’), has bee

I’m very happy to share that our work on bone inner structure of Madagascar’s subfossil sloth- and koala-lemurs is finally out 🦴🐒 on @zoojlinnsoc.bsky.social
A big thank you to co-authors @julsam.bsky.social Carla Argilés Esturgó and Damiano Marchi!

academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

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The locomotor behavior of subfossil Malagasy sloth-lemurs (Strepsirrhini: Palaeopropithecidae) and koala-lemurs (Strepsirrhini: Megaladapidae): new insights from limb trabecular bone The locomotion of Malagasy Quaternary subfossil lemurs - including palaeopropithecids (sloth-lemurs) and megaladapids (koala-lemurs) -has been investigated on abundant postcranial remains. Proposed st...

Very happy to share the preprint of our work on Quaternary subfossil lemur trabecular structure! Thanks to co-authors @julsam.bsky.social, Carla Argilés Esturgó and Damiano Marchi

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Why bird wing bones look so similar inside, no matter how they live Fabio Alfieri, Oliver E. Demuth, Elizabeth M. Steell, Anne-Claire Fabre, Daniel J. Field This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Bones are…

And here you can find the plain-language summary🙂

fesummaries.wordpress.com/2025/09/19/w...

thank you so much @albertonykus.bsky.social :)

Constrained variation in the internal architecture of avian wing bones Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Happy to share my first postdoc work published in @funecology.bsky.social ! A huge thank-you to @oliverdemuth.bsky.social @lizzysteell.bsky.social @fieldpalaeo.bsky.social @grumpydrfabre.bsky.social and to @snsf.ch

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The relationship between primate distal fibula trabecular architecture and arboreality, phylogeny and size The fibula, despite being traditionally overlooked compared to the femur and the tibia, has recently received attention in primate functional morphology due to its correlation with the degree of arbo....

Our latest paper on fibulas 🦴 has finally a home in the @journalofanatomy.bsky.social! We studied trabecular architecture to check if it records arboreal habits 🌳 in #primates 🐒🦧🦍... (1/2) 🧪 #science 🏺 #BioAnth

dx.doi.org/10.1111/joa....