Lemur are primates that inhabit Madagascar, and three new species of them have been anounced despite the fact that they were located in the eastern rain forests in 2001. They are all mouse sized primates and have all gotten the genus Microcebus to describe their small bodies.
One of the species have been named, Microcebus mittermeieri, named after primatologist and Conservation International president Russell Mittermeier, “for his commitment and dedication to protecting wildlife and forest habitat all over the world.” The second lemur has been named Microcebus simmonsi, after Lee Simmons, director of the Henry Doorly Zoo, and Microcebus jollyae, for Alison Jolly, a lemur researcher at Princeton University in New Jersey.
The discovery of these new lemurs have influenced the Madagascar’s president to recently announce that the government would be tripling the total size of the island’s protected areas to 14,826,000 acres (6,000,000 hectares), which is a significant contribution to primate research and conservation.
The discovery will be published in the current issue of the scientific journal International Journal of Primatology. You can read more about the discovery over at National Geographic News.
2 Comments
June 28, 2006 at 10:26 pm
[...] I’ve tracked down the paper published in April of 2006, in the journal International Journal of Primatology, on the discovery of the three new species of mouse lemur from Madagascar. The paper is titled, “Revision of the Mouse Lemurs (Microcebus) of Eastern Madagascar” from Edward E. Louis, et al. The abstract reads, “Phylogenetic analysis of ca. 4500 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA sequence data reveals further genetic diversity in mouse lemurs (Microcebus) on the eastern and western coasts of Madagascar. Molecular data and phylogenetic analyses revise the previously monotypic species of eastern Madagascar, Microcebus rufus, with the description of 3 new species. Three additional Microcebus species are proposed in eastern Madagascar, along with another Microcebus species in western Madagascar. Correlating the molecular data with previously generated sequence data, we present a tentative pattern of distribution along the east coast. We show that the general distribution of Microcebus is based on a traditional eastern/western division. The preliminary model appears strongly influenced by both rivers and altitudinal differences acting independently as barriers.” [...]
February 27, 2009 at 3:38 am
[...] Here for instance they report on the discovery of 3 new species of Lemurs in Madagascar, the size of a mouse! [...]