He peered through his binoculars towards the treetops in awe. Perched in the trees were three small marmosets听with white tails. Rodrigo Costa Ara煤jo of听the National Institute of Amazonian Research, Brazil, was gobsmacked: most other Amazonian marmosets鈥� tails are black.
That was the moment that Ara煤jo realised he might have a new species on his hands. 鈥淚 thought, 鈥極h my God, they are different, they are really, really different鈥�,鈥� he says.
Ara煤jo and his colleagues from institutes including the Federal University of Amazonas, Brazil, first spotted the marmosets in a remote part of the south-eastern Amazon, near the Tapaj贸s and Jamanxim rivers. Ara煤jo knew that no marmoset surveys had been conducted in the area before, so finding an undescribed species was a possibility. His hunch turned out to be right.
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Monkey calls
After about a month of travel to get to the area in 2015, he embarked on fieldwork. To entice monkeys out of the trees, he played an MP3 recording of other marmoset calls over a speaker while trekking through the rainforest.
During subsequent expeditions over the following three years, Ara煤jo and his colleagues discovered that this patch of forest is home to clusters of the white-tailed marmosets. In order to prove that they indeed represent a new species, the researchers killed five individuals for analysis under a permit provided by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, the administrative arm of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment. Their markings were the first thing that set them apart, but the team also examined the monkeys鈥� DNA.
Their genomes were all closely related but distinct from those of other known marmosets in the Amazon. This evidence, combined with data showing their unique distribution across a 55,000-square kilometre area, helped to prove this was a new species. It has been named Mico munduruku.
New species
鈥淚t鈥檚 always wonderful to hear about a new species of primate,鈥� says Jo Setchell at Durham University, UK.
The Amazon currently faces huge levels of deforestation and urban development. Ara煤jo warns that the marmosets鈥� habitat is also under threat from mining and farming activity.
A discovery like this shows that there are many treasures still hiding in the rainforest, says Setchell.
鈥淭he fact that we鈥檙e still finding new species in this area of the world that is so threatened is really important,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 possibly conserve animals until we know they鈥檙e there.鈥�
Journal reference:听PeerJ,听
