Researchers Discover New Monkey In Isolated Amazon Region of Brazil

Researchers have discovered a new species of monkey in the isolated upper Amazon of northwestern Brazil. The creature is nine inches tall, has a 12-inch tail, and weighs less than three-quarters of a pound. It also has distinctive gray and light green mottling on its back that looks like a saddle. The monkey, whose discovery was announced by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, was first seen by scientists during a 2007 expedition in the state of Amazonas. Researchers have named the creature saguinus fuscicollis mura, or Mura’s saddleback tamarin, after the Mura Indians who live in the Purus and Madeira river basins where the monkey was found. Conservationists are concerned that development — including a new highway through the Amazon, a proposed gas pipeline, and two hydroelectric dams — poses a threat to the rainforest habitat where the Mura’s saddleback tamarin lives. “This discovery should serve as a wake-up call that there is still so much to learn from the world’s wild places, yet humans continue to threaten these areas with destruction,” said Fabio Röhe of the Wildlife Conservation Society, lead author of a paper announcing the discovery of the species. The paper was published in the International Journal of Primatology.