New Species of Patas Monkey

Fresco3

Fresco3

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
A monkey with a 'handlebar moustache' has been identified as a distinct species.

It was once described in 1862 before being merged with the Patas Monkeys in 1927.

It is named the Blue Nile Patas Monkey (Erythrocebus Poliophaeus).

Moustached monkey is separate species

More details in the Primate conservation journal, which also describes
- a new dwarf lemur species
- two new tarsiers species
- two new slender loris subspecies

Just realised this is in the wrong place. Sorry.
 
lintworm said:
All in all it seems that the primate taxonomists are honouring the recently deceased Groves with even more PSC splits.

This is the original Patas monkey article:
http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/1200343/27795196/1515432572007/PC31_Gippoliti_Patas_Ethiopia.pdf?token=cIj1jDNWn0VX8tn2QOizgCoV2W8=
Click to expand...
Primatologists love splitting!

That paper is a bit of a mess. It starts off discussing the Patas subspecies and then suddenly jumps straight into labelling them all as full-on species. I had to scroll back because I thought I must have missed a page somehow.

I like that the "new" Patas is montane which is unusual, and it looks kind of different. I'm not really convinced though. Like many of the primate splits it is based mostly on "it looks kind of different".
 
Fresco3 said:
A monkey with a 'handlebar moustache' has been identified as a distinct species.

It was once described in 1862 before being merged with the Patas Monkeys in 1927.

It is named the Blue Nile Patas Monkey (Erythrocebus Poliophaeus).

Moustached monkey is separate species

More details in the Primate conservation journal, which also describes
- a new dwarf lemur species
- two new tarsiers species
- two new slender loris subspecies
Click to expand...
I was just looking at this - primarily because of the tarsiers because there are so many tarsiers already. Then I realised that, although the BBC News article is just out, all these taxonomic changes/proposals are from early last year (previous news articles about them are all from around May 2017). The two tarsiers are T. supriatni and T. spectrumgurskyae. The latter one is the famously-viewable species at Tangkoko.
 
Chlidonias said:
Primatologists love splitting!

I like that the "new" Patas is montane which is unusual, and it looks kind of different. I'm not really convinced though. Like many of the primate splits it is based mostly on "it looks kind of different".
Click to expand...

Its evidently darker and longer- haired, (the latter for for mountain-dwelling,) than the typical Patas, but enough to warrant classifying it as a seperate species? There's another recognised form of Patas monkey sometimes referred to as 'Nisnas' which is also dark(?) faced, but that one is only afforded subspecies level and there's even doubt about that I think.
 
Chlidonias said:
That paper is a bit of a mess. It starts off discussing the Patas subspecies and then suddenly jumps straight into labelling them all as full-on species. I had to scroll back because I thought I must have missed a page somehow.
Click to expand...

Why is there no molecular work? In this day and age, and with museum specimens and captive populations available, why would you try to split a species based on just the colour of the pelage? There wasn't even a table comparing the different species/subspecies. Note that on the first page he says "This is just one more taxonomic question which could possibly be answered by applying modern (molecular) methods to available museum collections, integrated by the study of photographic materials of patas monkeys from known localities" but then is quite happy to base the rest of the discussion and conclusions on photos and a couple of museum specimens.

It reminded me of a certain Australian reptile specialist who has published 'new' species based on shonky work (or other peoples work), but this author appears to be a respected primatologist so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Still, if he's naming a new species (as he said he is in the abstract), the description doesn't look anything like the standard descriptions of new taxon I've seen in other papers.

:p

Hix
 
A subspecies of Patas Monkey called the Blue Nile Patas Monkey formally known as Erythrocebus patas poliophaeus has been upgraded to its former species level which was originally designated to it back in 1862 by Reichenbach. Read the paper here by Spartaco Gippoliti who is part of the IUCN's SSC Primate Specialist Group. As Patas's are my favorite Old World Monkeys after baboons this is especially interesting!
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_99633015_globalwildlife_82821091_large.jpg
 
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