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National Geographic website, 9 Aug 05
Photo in the News: New Lemur Species Discovered
 Ted Chamberlain

BBC online, 9 Aug 05
New lemurs found in Madagascar

Two new species of lemur have been found in Madagascar, bringing the number of known species to 49.

German and Malagasy scientists made the discovery by analysing the genetic make-up of wild lemurs.

Lemurs are considered the most endangered of all primates and live only on Madagascar which has evolved in isolation for 165 million years. As a result, the island is now home to mammals, birds and plants that exist nowhere else on our planet.

The first new species is a giant mouse lemur known as Mirza zaza. It has a long bushy tail and is about the size of a grey squirrel. Until now, scientists believed only one type of giant mouse lemur existed, split into two populations in the west and the north of the island.

But morphological, genetic and behavioural data shows they are in fact distinct species which diverged about two million years ago.

Mouse lemur

The second newly discovered species is a type of mouse lemur, of which nine species are now known.

Microcebus lehilahytsara, or Goodman's mouse lemur, lives in eastern Madagascar's rainforest. It is little bigger than a mouse, with short, rounded ears and a white stripe on its nose. 		LEMURS
Lemurs are the closest living analogs to our ancient primate ancestors who lived about 55 million years ago
One-third of species are extinct
Remaining species are under threat from hunting and habitat destruction

"It is simply remarkable that M. lehilahytsara was obtained at Andasibe, a protected area of forest that is considered one of the best known sites on the island and is the most heavily visited by ecotourists," said Steve Goodman, a scientist with WWF and The Field Museum in Chicago, after whom the lemur is named.

"The fact that such an area holds a primate previously unknown to science underscores how much still needs to be done to document the biota of this extraordinary island."

The findings by scientists at the German Primate Centre (DPZ) and the University of Göttingen are described in the current issue of the journal Primate Report.

National Geographic website, 9 Aug 05
Photo in the News: New Lemur Species Discovered
 Ted Chamberlain

You're a good man, Microcebus lehilahytsara—quite literally. The German and Madagascan scientists who discovered the new lemur species named it for U.S. lemur expert Steve Goodman ("lehilahytsara" is Malagasy for "good man").

They announced the discovery of this and another new lemur species (not pictured) today. Surprisingly, the scientists discovered Microcebus lehilahytsara not in some shrouded jungle but in one of the most studied rain forests on the African island of Madagascar.

Then again, this good man is not much bigger than a big mouse, making Microcebus lehilahytsara all the more difficult to find.

About the size of a gray squirrel, the other new lemur species is also fairly wee, hence its name, Mirza zaza—"zaza" being Malagasy for "child."

"Also, with this name the new lemur is dedicated to Madagascar's children, to remind them of their responsibility for preserving the island's unique biodiversity for future generations," according to a press statement from Chicago's Field Museum.

The two new primate species are rare finds, bringing the total number of known lemur species to 49—all of which occur naturally only on Madagascar or the nearby Comoros islands.
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