Malagasy Crowned Eagle (Stephanoaetus mahery)
The Malagasy Crowned Eagle was described in 1994 based on subfossil remains found on the island of Madagascar.
The species was quite similar to the African Crowned Eagle (Stephanoaetus coronatus (L.)), one of the largest eagles in the world, but was probably even slightly larger.
The eagle inhabited the forested areas of Madagascar until around 1500 AD. And was wiped out by humans.
***
Like its African cousin this species was able to hunt for the middle-sized to large primate species, the lemures, and apparently was one of the apex predators on the island; in fact the recent lemures still show a distinct raptor avoidance behavior that dates back to the time when their biggest enemy was still alive.
*********************
Photo: Bernard Dupont
(under creative commons license (2.0))
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
*********************
edited: 25.05.2021