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Monkey Business© Debbie St. Germain
What happens when a Primotologist goes exploring for a new species of monkey in the Amazon Rain Forest?
It all started when a local man brought the dwarf marmoset to van Roosmalen. He knew right away that it was a new species and set out in search of it's habitat. Often the guides led him to the wrong type of monkey but occasionally, the "wrong monkey" was also an entirely new species. So where did he finally find this new monkey species? Right in someones backyard. The monkeys would come there, 3 times a day, to feed on the Morototo trees, a source of food during the dry season. Many new Primates have been discovered all over the world. In 1904, Goeldi's Monkey was found to be different enough to justify a new genus. In 1988 a rather unique primate, the Philippine Tarsier was discovered. Mountain Gorillas were identified in 1902 but that is fairly young in the scientific world. In fact they are on the Endangered Species list. Then there are the Tamarins. Easily noticed by their white moustache, the Emperor Tamarin Monkey was described in 1907. More recently a fourth species of the Lion Tamarins was discovered. Did you know that the Tamarins and Marmosets are what inspired Roald Dahl to write his book, The Gremlins and Stephen Spielbergs movie, The Gremlins? Although they are monkeys they were nicknamed gremlins, for their appearance and mischievous behavior. During WW11, airforce pilots blamed mechanical malfunctions on these gremlins. Monkeys are not the only primates. Primates include Lemurs, lorises, galagos, pottos, tarsiers, monkeys, apes and humans. Yes, even we are in the primate order. The order is further divided into 2 categories, higher primates such as ourselves and monkeys and Prosimians, which include all others. Lemurs are a Prosimian that have had some recent species discoveries. In 1972 a discovery was made of a bamboo Lemur in Madagacar. It was not until 1986 that they realized that this was a completely new species, the Golden Bamboo Lemur. One of the largest Lemurs was also found in Madagascar in 1989, the Golden Crowned Sifaka.
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The copyright of the article Monkey Business in Science for Kids is owned by Mary M. Alward. Permission to republish Monkey Business in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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