The tail is naked except for a few short hairs on the tip. The very large eyes are the most outstanding structural feature, the diameter of the eyeball being approximately 16 mm. The head is round, with a reduced muzzle, and the neck is short. The ears are thin, membranous, and nearly naked. Members of this genus differ from all lemurs in that the nasal region is clothed with short hairs to the margins of the nostrils, with a narrow strip of naked skin around the nostrils.
Lemurs have a moist muzzle with a central prolongation dividing the upper lip.
The digits are long and tipped with rounded pads that enable the animal to grip almost any surface. The thumb is not truly opposable, but the first toe is well developed and widely opposable. Except for the second and third toes, which have clawlike nails used in grooming, all the digits have flattened nails. The upper incisors are large and pointed, and the lower incisors point upward, not forward. The upper canines are relatively small.