Some lemurs are brightly colored, with contrasting patches of black, white, brown, gray or rufous. Color patterns are sexually dimorphic in some members of the family. Lemurs have long, heavily furred tails, and slender bodies and limbs. The fur is soft and wooly. Their external ears are short or moderately long, and they are at least partially covered with fur.
All species have tufts of fur on the tips of their ears.
Both pollex and hallux are enlarged and opposable. Lemurs have relatively small eyes compared to other strepsirhines , and their rostrum is relatively long. As strepsirhines, lemurs have the dental comb made up of lower incisors and canines that is typical of that group of primates. The skulls of lemurs are hard to diagnose. The cranium is usually elongate due largely to a long rostrum , but there is a good deal of variation among species.