- Scientists sequencing the genes of captive Malaysian white-handed gibbons, Hylobates lar lar, have discovered two separately evolving populations, in the north and south of Peninsular Malaysia.
- For the past thousands of years, the northern and southern groups have been geographically isolated and evolving independently, the scientists say.
- Now, their genetic distance is large enough that they could potentially be two distinct subspecies, according to the scientists, who sequenced a fast-evolving segment of mitochondrial DNA from the captive gibbons.
- For researchers looking to reintroduce captive gibbons back into the wild, focusing on that particular segment is a powerful method for pinpointing the population an animal originated from.
Here, in this stretch of land between the Muda and Perak rivers, an entirely different species dominates: black-handed gibbons (Hylobates agilis). Their presence splits the white-handed gibbons, which are otherwise scattered across the whole peninsula, into two populations: a northern and southern one.
For the past thousands of years, the northern and southern populations, geographically isolated from each other, have been evolving independently. Now, scientists sequencing the genes of these gibbons have found they have grown so genetically different, they could potentially qualify as two distinct subspecies.
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