( eum's extensive primate collection to c...)Scientists describe new African monkey genus ?first in 83 years

eum's extensive primate collection to compare Kipunji with other primates and found that the skull and external features of the specimen do not exhibit the diagnostic morphological features of baboons: namely, a long rostrum or deep depressions on the outside of the lower jaw. Also, depressions under the orbits of the Kipunji skull are much different than those of baboons, mandrills, and geladas.

Given the results of the molecular and morphological analyses, the team placed Kipunji in its own genus Rungwecebus, named after Mt. Rungwe where Kipunji was first observed.

Unfortunately, the forest home of this new monkey is fragmented and vulnerable. Logging, charcoal making, poaching and unmanaged resource extraction are common. Without intervention, both forests will be further fragmented, the authors note in their paper. The main predators of Kipunji are crowned eagles and possibly leopards. But humans also hunt and kill Kipunji, and eat their meat.

"Any hunting of the Kipunji or loss of its vulnerable habitat, with the latter probably increasing the frequency of the former, will further serve to threaten this important new genus," the authors conclude.

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Source:Field Museum


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