marmosets species or sub species

[zooman]

How many species of or sub species of marmosets are their?

I have seen how they can be distributed and separated by water creating very different looking animals in appearance. So are marmoset’s one species with a whole lot of sub species?

When does a sub species become a species?

 

[MARK]

They are still counting the number of species as new species and sub-species are still being found

 

[Tim May]

How many species of or sub species of marmosets are their?

I have seen how they can be distributed and separated by water creating very different looking animals in appearance. So are marmoset’s one species with a whole lot of sub species?

In his book Primate Taxonomy (2001) Colin Groves lists eighteen distinct species of marmoset (genus Callithrix).

Presumably a more up to date work would list even more.

 

[bongorob]

Click on this link and go to the bottom of the page. On the right is a list of marmoset genera. Click on each genus to see a list of species and subspecies.

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callitrichidae]Callitrichidae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

This classification has split Callithrix into Callithrix, Mico and Callibella.

Two forms as yet undescribed are western saddle-backed tamarin (Saguinus fuscicollis 'occidentalis') and a marmoset closely related to Emilia's marmoset (Mico cf. emilae)

As Mark and Tim May have posted, there are probably more species as yet unknown.

 

[UntBwe]

This is an ongoing proces. It's very sad that Marc van Roosmalen cannot do his work in Amazonia yet, because he discovered many subspecies. And I'm convinced there are more to discover.

Look here for a list of new species described by Marc van Roosmalen: Marc van Roosmalen, New Species, Amazon Association for the Preservation of Nature and be aware that this is not a complete list. In his latest book he says that he still has a number to describe.

If you're interested in titi monkeys I can recommend the book 'A Taxanomic review of the Titi Monkeys, Callicebus Thomas 1903', by Marc van Roosmalen, Tomas van Roosmalen and Russell Mittermeier. 2002, Neotropical Primates, Volume 10, supplement. On line view: http://www.primate-sg.org/PDF/NP10.S.pdf (book is sometimes available on the internet, it has a large folding map with all the subspecies)

I find this very interesting. Like other species such as marmosets or tamarins, you can see how a subspecies evolved under local circumstances. In Amazonia the many rivers encloses land which is actually an island for the living species. Every 'island' has his own subspecies. On the map on page 8 of the pdf-file of A taxonomic review... you can see the distribution of the titi monkeys and the rivers which are the barriers between the subspecies. You can imagine that there are more to discover in areas deep into the forests.