Scientist Discovers Tiny, New Monkey Species in Rain Forest
8/18/97
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Headline: Scientist Discovers Tiny, New Monkey Species in Rain Forest
Source: CNN
Date: 8/18/97
Copyright 1997: Cable News Network, Inc.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- A Dutch scientist
has discovered the second-smallest monkey species
in the Brazilian rain forest, a scientific plum
that was literally handed to him.
A local man showed up on the doorstep of Marc Van
Roosmalen's primate orphanage in Manaus, 1,800
miles northwest of Rio De Janeiro in April 1996.
He was carrying a can containing a tiny monkey. It
was mouse-sized and greenish-gray, with a white
fringe around its face, a black crown and a black
tail.
"As soon as I saw it I knew it was something new.
But I couldn't show my excitement, because if the
guy knew he had something valuable he might have
kept it," Van Roosmalen said recently by telephone
from Manaus.
Finding the black-headed sagui dwarf, as Van
Roosmalen dubbed it, was the easy part.
To prove it was a new species, Van Roosmalen
needed to find a few more of them, but all he knew
was that the monkey had been found on a boat
coming down the Rio Madeira. It took him more than
a year of hiking around the jungle before he
located them near the Rio Aripuana.
DNA testing confirmed it was a new species in the
sagui monkey family. Van Roosmalen's name will
stick until a full scientific description with
a formal name can be published, expected in
the Brazilian journal "Goeldiana" later this year.
Average adult only 4 inches long
An average adult of the species measures only 4
inches and weighs around 5.6 ounces, making it the
second-smallest monkey species ever discovered.
The smallest known monkey is the pygmy marmoset,
with an average size of 3.6 inches and weight of
6.6 ounces.
The newly found monkey also may have the world's
smallest distribution for a primate. It is found
only on a triangular stretch of land between the
Amazon tributaries Rio Madeira and Rio Aripuana,
an area smaller than Rhode Island.
"I think when the scientific description is
published, it will show that this is a significant
discovery representing not only a new species but
perhaps a new genus," said Dr. Russell
Mittermeier, a primatologist and president of the
Washington-based Conservation International.
Animals are classified by species, genus and
family.
Scientist confident more species will be found
The discovery also points out the diversity of
life in the rain forest.
The black-headed sagui dwarf is the seventh new
monkey discovered in as many years. And during his
search for the monkey's relatives, Van Roosmalen
thinks he stumbled on more new species.
"I expect to describe between 10 and 13 new
species in the next few years," Van Roosmalen
said. "And this was in an area thought not to be
very important."
While the species is not threatened by hunters,
because it's too small to eat, Van Roosmalen
worries that the monkey may be threatened by
development and destruction of its habitat.
"I hope with the discovery of this monkey and
maybe some of the others the government will act
to preserve the area," he said.
Brazil has the world's greatest number of monkey
species. Of some 250 known species, 80 are in
Brazil.