Primate Taxonomy by Colin Groves, Smithsonion, 拢50, ISBN 156098872X
MISS Waldron鈥檚 Red Colobus is no more. It鈥檚 official: exhaustive searches
have failed to find this primate. And Pennant鈥檚 Sanga River Red Colobus has not
been seen for years. It, too, may be extinct. These are probably the first
primate extinctions in modern times. To avoid more, conservation needs
taxonomists.
鈥淭axonomy is, in today鈥檚 tragic biodiversity crisis, the very starting point
for conservation efforts,鈥� says Colin Groves in Primate Taxonomy. Few
can know that better than him. He has spent almost four decades in the world鈥檚
museums and forests, studying mammals in general and primates in particular. In
this, the first review in 30 years to cover all primate species, he provides a
clear basis for defining and, hence, conserving the various species and
sub-species of monkeys and apes.
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Primate taxonomy has come a long way since early 19th-century zoologists
classified almost every medium-sized primate as genus Simia, a bin bag
of a genus that once contained everything from tamarins to baboons. Eventually
Simia burst under the strain. Finer distinctions were needed.
By the 1890s, professional travelling collectors, bored plantation owners and
junior aristocrats on holiday had done their work with powder and shot.
Specimens of most of today鈥檚 modern genera were in collections. Sadly, a large
proportion of some species had been wiped out in the meantime. What primates
remained undiscovered were generally small and skulking or lived only in the
remotest places.
Until Groves began this monumental study of Earth鈥檚 250-plus primate species,
no one had taken a close look at many of the primate groups for years. The
status of many species and subspecies and their precise distributions wasn鈥檛
clear. Such uncertainty often exists because, historically, the same species has
been described several times, each time by a separate researcher, who has of
course, given it a different name. With an embryonic postal service and
entrenched national rivalries, many 19th-century taxonomists worked in
semi-isolation, and such redundancy was to be expected. What鈥檚 more, taxonomy
has long been a Cinderella science, underfunded and understaffed.
Taxonomy has been changing. The old methods of pure anatomical analysis are
now supplemented by studies of chromosomes, DNA or DNA鈥檚 protein proxies.
Carefully calibrated molecular clocks probe ancestry at the levels of the
family, genus, species or subspecies. These new tools helped abolish many forms
named in past years, when the slightest variants of shape and colour
distinguished new species: ecologically ignorant at best, egoistic at worst.
But pragmatic opinion has swung back towards the old-fashioned approach. A
distinct population of a species is now likely to achieve status as a species or
subspecies. This isn鈥檛 simply proliferation of species to facilitate funding,
but an attempt to ensure survival. Once defined, such taxa can be more
effectively monitored: a name brings conceptual boundaries, and with that come
geographical ones. Groves treats 24 species in this way, as well as raising
groups to level of subspecies and pointing out the existence of as yet
undescribed groups. Evolutionary theory has recognised that ecological
separation, not just geographic separation, induces speciation.
Primate Taxonomy is far more than a list of species whose scientific
status has been reviewed or revised. It is also a very thorough explanation of
the aims, motivations and practice of modern taxonomy. Groves, arguably the
world鈥檚 foremost primate taxonomist, is at great pains to show how taxonomic
decisions are reached. He shows how what once involved 鈥渁 certain feel鈥� and was,
to some extent, a craft, is now probably as objective as the nature of the field
allows.
Sadly, Primate Taxonomy will not hit the bestseller lists. But the
library of any university where either taxonomy or primatology (or both) are
practised would be well advised to order multiple copies, to avoid students and
scientists alike queuing for a peek.
Even before its publication, the book had already done some good. Last year,
Groves鈥檚 conclusions formed the major basis for a international symposium of
primate conservationists. It prompted major revisions of African, South-East
Asian and New World primates. Now we have a clear idea of what we鈥檝e got, the
next trick is to go out and save them.