Shanta Barley The Guardian 13 Dec 10;
Scientists believe they have discovered a new species of lemur in the forests of Madagascar.
The animal's unique, feathery structure under its tongue – that may be used to gather nectar – distinguishes it as a new species, researchers say. They are waiting for the results of a genetic analysis to confirm the claim.
Primatologist Russ Mittermeier, who is now the president of Conservation International, first glimpsed the lemur in 1995 in Daraina, a forest in north-east Madagascar. It had a black stripe on its back that forked on its face, suggesting to Mittermeier that it was a fork-marked lemur belonging to the genus phaner.
"I was surprised to see a fork-marked lemur there, since this animal had not yet been recorded from the region," he said. "I immediately knew that it was likely a new species to science."
It was not until October this year, however, that Mittermeier returned to Daraina, along with a film crew from the BBC's Natural History Unit, to investigate. After hearing the distinctive calls of a fork-marked lemur, the team tracked it through the forest and shot it with a tranquiliser gun. They took blood samples from the lemur for genetic analysis and returned it to the wild when it regained consciousness.
Footage of the lemur will air tomorrow on the BBC programme, Decades of Discovery, in which filmmaker Chris Packham goes in search of his top 10 favourite new species of the last decade.
Although the results from the genetic analysis have not yet been revealed, Mittermeier is convinced that the creature is a new species of fork-marked lemur that is uniquely adapted to the forests of Dairana. Sandwiched between its toothcomb and tongue is a "strange structure" that has never been seen before in species belonging to the phaner genus, according to Mittermeier. White and feathery, the structure flicks upwards when the lemur's tongue is extended. He believes that it helps the lemur to capture nectar.
Apart from the strange structure in its mouth, the lemur is otherwise very similar in appearance to other species of fork-crowned lemur. It has a "toothcomb" – a mesh of incisors that it uses to scrape tree sap off bark – and a long, spindly tongue that it uses to eat nectar and tree sap. It also sounds a loud, high-pitched call just after sunset and leaps between branches without pausing.
There are four known species of phaner – or fork-marked – lemur: the Amber mountain fork-marked dwarf lemur, the eastern fork-marked dwarf lemur, the western fork-crowned dwarf lemur and the Sambirano fork-crowned dwarf lemur. Although 42 species of lemur have been discovered in Madagascar since 2000, not a single new species belonging to the phaner genus has been found. "This would be the first, and that's very exciting," Mittermeier said.
"This is yet another remarkable discovery from the island of Madagascar, the world's highest priority biodiversity hotspot and one of the most extraordinary places in our planet," Mittermeier said. "It is particularly remarkable that we continue to find new species of lemurs and many other plants and animals in this heavily impacted country, which has already lost 90% or more of its original vegetation."
Linn Groeneveld, a primatologist based at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, is sceptical of Mittermeier's claims, however. "A great number of new lemur species have been described in the last decades and I think people have rightly so expressed concern about the validity of some of these species. I believe that we should use an integrative approach to species delimitation, which relies on multiple lines of evidence."
According to Groeneveld, conservationists are sometimes too hasty to declare the discovery of new species, because it helps them to protect threatened ecosystems. "Every new - especially primate - species can serve as an extra argument for the much needed protection of remaining forest," she said. But not everyone agrees. According to Christopher Golden, who researches Madagascan conservation at the University of California in Berkeley, even the discovery of a new species of lemur will not be enough to protect Madagascar's forests.
"Discoveries of new species have historically altered the fate of threatened ecosystems during the era of the Durban Vision, but since the change in political regime, the hope for illuminating hidden biodiversity to enhance incentives for conservation has been lost amid political strife," said Golden. The Durban Vision was a promise made by former president Marc Ravalomanana to triple the area of the country's national parks. It was sidetracked in March 2009, when a violent coup overturned the government, according to Golden.
In addition to footage of the potentially new species of lemur, the BBC programme will include exclusive footage of a host of other unusual, recently discovered species. On the list is the pygmy three-toed sloth, the sengi; Chan's megastick – the world's longest insect, and the bamboo shark, which walks along the sea bed on fins.
Also featured in the documentary is the barreleye, a deep sea fish with a transparent head that protects its tubular, green eyes from the stinging tentacles of the jellyfish that it eats. In 2009, footage of the fish captured by remotely operated vehicles at a depth of 700m revealed that the eyes point upwards when the fish is looking for food, and swivel forwards when it is feeding.
• Decade of Discovery will be shown on BBC2 at 8pm on Tuesday 14 December
New species of lemur discovered in Madagascar
BBC News 13 Dec 10;
A species of fork-marked lemur believed to be new to science has been found in the forests of Madagascar.
The find is revealed on the BBC documentary Decade of Discovery.
Primate expert and president of Conservation International, Russ Mittermeier, first spotted the lemur during an expedition in 1995, but has confirmed its existence whilst filming the documentary this year, when he and his colleagues captured and took blood samples from the small primate before returning it to its forest home.
Genetic testing of these samples should confirm whether the animal is indeed a new species.
Dr Mittermeier, however, is already convinced that it is.
Forked-marked lemurs belong to the genus, or group of species, called Phaner. If confirmed as a new species, this would be only the fifth member of that group.
Following the call
Dr Mittermeier first saw the squirrel-sized creature in Daraina, a protected area in the northeast of Madagascar.
He was there in search of another lemur - the golden-crowned Tattersall's sifaka (Propithecus tattersali), a much larger species only discovered in 1988.
"I was surprised to see a fork-marked lemur there, since this animal had not yet been recorded from the region," he recalled.
"I immediately knew that it was likely a new species to science, but didn't have the time to follow up until now."
So in October of this year, the researcher led an expedition - including geneticist Ed Louis from the Omaha Zoo and a film crew from the BBC's Natural History Unit - to the same area, where they managed to track down the animal.
The team set out just after sunset, which is when fork-marked lemurs are most vocal.
They heard one calling close to camp at the top of a tree and ran through the forest following its calls.
The researchers eventually caught sight of the animal in the torchlight, and fired a tranquiliser dart.
A team member then climbed the tree to bring the sleepy little lemur safely down to the ground, where they could examine it.
The shape of the lemur's markings, the size of its limbs and its long, nectar-slurping tongue are familiar facets of all Phaner lemurs.
But this one has a slightly different colour pattern. It also displayed an unusual head-bobbing behaviour that the scientists had not seen in other fork-marked lemurs.
A strange structure under the lemur's tongue could also distinguish it from its closest relatives.
"The genetics will tell the real story," said Dr Mittermeier.
If confirmed as a new species, Dr Louis and Dr Mittermeier would like the animal to be named after Fanamby, the conservation organisation that has been instrumental in protecting the forest of Daraina.
"This is yet another remarkable discovery from the island of Madagascar, the world's highest priority biodiversity hotspot and one of the most extraordinary places in our planet," Dr Mittermeier said.
"It is particularly remarkable that we continue to find new species of lemurs and many other plants and animals in this heavily impacted country, which has already lost 90% or more of its original vegetation."
And because of its very restricted range, it is likely that this will turn out to be an endangered or critically endangered species.
Decade of Discovery, a collaboration between Conservation International and the BBC's Natural History Unit, will be broadcast at 20.00BST on Tuesday 14 December on BBC Two.