Scientists discover two adorable species of howler monkey in the Amazon — and they're already endangered
Scientists have identified two newfound species of howler monkey in the Amazon rainforest.
Key points
- "Our study shows that the Amazon still holds remarkable biological secrets, even among well-known animals such as howler monkeys," study first author Romina Batista, a biodiversity scientist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and the University of Salford in the U.K., said in the statement.
- Their identification raises the number of known howler monkey species to 16, researchers said in a statement.
- Researchers believe that howler monkeys can swim across small waterways, but big rivers block groups from mixing, which led to different traits and species evolving over time.
The researchers analyzed the genomes of 11 howler monkey species living in South and Central America, combining existing DNA datasets with new genomic information from specimens in Brazilian zoological collections.
The scientists found that natural barriers such as the Amazon River, the Xingu River and the Branco River drove many howler monkeys to develop separately.
Additional details
- The newfound howler monkey species Alouatta iroi, photographed in Guiana.
- Natural barriers are a common reason why species emerge in the Amazon, the researchers noted in the study.
- (Image credit: John Trent CC-BY-NC-ND) Overall, the genetic data confirmed that howler monkeys diverged from close relatives between 19 million and 13.5 million years ago.
- 30 in the journal Communications Biology, used genetic evidence to understand when howler monkeys spread out and diversified.
- The other newfound species faces threats from a planned dam on the Rio Branco River, according to the study.
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