A group of fluffy grey monkeys living in the Amazon rainforest belong to a new species. They were first spotted by biologists a century ago, but have only now been recognised by scientists as a distinct group.
Plecturocebus parecis lives on the Parecis plateau in Rondônia in Brazil. The surrounding rainforest is being cut down, but so far the monkeys have survived, because the plateau’s steep sides make it hard to access.
They were first noticed by scientists in 1914, but were thought to be ashy black titis (P. cinerascens), a dark grey species first described in 1823.
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“The biologist writing up his report in 1914 said ‘it seemed like’ the ashy,” says Adrian Barnett at the National Institute of Amazonian Research in Manaus, Brazil, who was part of the team that confirmed the new species. “He was clearly in doubt.” But no specimens had been collected, so the matter rested for decades.
Mariluce Messias at the Federal University of Rondônia in Porto Velho came across the Parecis titi monkeys in 2011. She has spent the past few years studying the primates of Rondônia in the face of rampant deforestation. Barnett describes her as “heroic”.
Unlike the ashy black titis, which are dark grey all over, the Parecis titis have chestnut brown backs and large white patches on their chests. They are known to the local indigenous people, the Parecis, as the “otôhô”.
Further evidence that they are a separate species came when the team compared DNA from the Parecis titis with that of 10 other species, including ashy black titis, and . “That clinched it,” says Barnett.
The team argues that the Parecis titi should be classed as “Near Threatened” on the . “The range is small and the population restricted,” says Barnett.
Messias was also involved in the discovery of the Munduruku marmoset in the south-eastern Amazon earlier this year. Barnett says more findings will probably follow. “One thing about deforestation is that it gives everyone access to remote areas, so sometimes scientists get to areas that have never been properly explored just before the chainsaws,” he says.
The Parecis titi is the 20th new monkey species discovered in Brazil since 2000, and the third found in 2019, according to Barnett.
