Rare primates found in Madagascar
Copyright 2000, United Press International
November 14, 2000
A team of international scientists has discovered three previously unknown species of mouse lemur in the Indian Ocean East African island state of Madagascar.
The mouse lemur is the world's smallest-known primate.
The British Broadcasting Corp. reported Tuesday that the scientists discovered the species during a survey of the island's western forests and later confirmed their identity by genetic tests.
Lemurs, primitive primates that live in trees, are found only on Madagascar and in nearby Comoros.
The tiny mouse lemurs have heads no bigger than a human thumb and weigh just a few ounces. They have long noses, agile limbs and piercing round eyes.
According to the BBC, the scientists compared the physical features of mouse lemurs -- their teeth, skulls, length and body size -- from 12 geographic locations on the island. To their surprise, they discovered that they had stumbled onto seven different mouse lemur species, including three new to human knowledge.
"It's incredibly rare to discover a new species of primate, let alone three new species," said Steven Goodman, of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, who was part of the team undertaking the study.
"Understanding aspects of lemur biology and evolution gives us a window into the history of more advanced primates, like ourselves," said another member of the team, Rodin Rasoloarison, of the University of Antananarivo, in the Madagascan capital, and the Deutsches Primatenzentrum in Germany.
Madagascar's forests are home to a wide variety of plant and animal life, including more than 12,000 species of flowering plants, 300 species of butterflies and nearly 100 mammal species.
Nearly 100 percent of the mammals on the archipelago exist only there and nowhere else on Earth. But the species of mouse lemurs are endangered, with their forest habitat being rapidly destroyed.
In March, scientists warned that the survival of almost a quarter of the world's primate species is endangered by human activities. The primates -- apes, monkeys and lemurs -- are genetically closer to humans than any other creatures. The World Conservation Union says 88 of the 600 primate species are endangered to some degree.
And 50 more species are now critically endangered, and could become extinct within a few decades.