Two New Howler Monkey Species Named After 85 Years

For 85 years, every howler monkey in the Amazon fit a known species. A genome study just added two more to the list. [Two new howler monkey species discovered in the Amazon (Phys.org)]

Genomic analysis of 11 howler species, published in Communications Biology, formally describes Alouatta iroi in the northern Amazon and Alouatta matogrossensis in the south. The last new howler was described in 1941. One of the two new species may already be critically endangered. [Two new howler monkey species discovered in the Amazon (Phys.org)]

The animals themselves: Alouatta iroi, the Pantepui red howler, lives in the northern Amazon basin across Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela, in the tepui country that gives it its common name. Alouatta matogrossensis, the Mato Grosso red howler, lives in Brazil's southern Amazon and wears a strikingly intense red coat. Howlers are named for a call built to carry — a roar that moves through canopy for miles — and both species were, until the DNA was read, filed under other monkeys' names. [Two new howler monkey species discovered in the Amazon (Phys.org)] [Two new howler species, one already at risk (GreenMe)]

The method matters more than the nets-and-binoculars image of discovery. The team — coordinated by the University of Salford's Jean Boubli and Romina Batista, with zoologist Anneke van Heteren — sequenced genomes across all 11 recognized howler species in Central and South America. The genome-wide data redrew the genus's family tree and its distribution map at once, separating lineages that pelts and skulls had lumped together. Taxonomists call the two gaps this closes the Linnean shortfall — species that exist but have no name — and the Wallacean shortfall — not knowing where they live. Both closed a little this week. [Two new howler monkey species discovered in the Amazon (Phys.org)] [Two new howler species, one already at risk (GreenMe)]

The southern species arrives with its warning attached. Alouatta matogrossensis lives in the arc of deforestation, the southern Amazon's advancing edge of pasture, roads and farmland, in habitat already heavily fragmented. The researchers believe it qualifies for Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List — the highest risk category before extinction in the wild. Its northern relative's status hasn't been assessed in the reporting, and this article doesn't guess at it. [Two new howler monkey species discovered in the Amazon (Phys.org)] [Two new howler species, one already at risk (GreenMe)]

A name is not a formality. An undescribed species has no Red List entry, no legal standing and no claim on a conservation budget — it can be cleared out of a forest without ever appearing in an impact statement. Matogrossensis got its name and its alarm on the same day, which is more warning than most newly named animals receive. What the arc of deforestation does with the warning is the part no journal can publish. [Two new howler monkey species discovered in the Amazon (Phys.org)]