Nature & Environment

New species of monkey discovered

By T.K. Randall
September 14, 2012 ·  3 comments

Image Credit: CC 2.5 PLoS The lesula is only the second new species of monkey discovered in Africa in 28 years making this is a rare and unusual find. The new species sports a naked face, a mane of long blond hairs and a somewhat distinctively blue posterior. It lives both in the trees and on the ground and eats mainly fruit and vegetation. The species also live in small groups from 1 to 5 individuals.

"This was a totally unexpected find, and we knew we had something unusual and possibly unknown when we first saw the animal," said John and Terese Hart of Yale University's Peabody Museum of Natural History. "But it was not until we had the genetic and morphological analyses of our collaborating team that we knew we really had a new species."

Source: Guardian | Comments (3)

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