Unusual Discovery of New African Monkey Species

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Unusual Discovery of New African Monkey Species

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday September 13, 2012 @04:38PM from the new-primate-on-the-block dept.

rhettb writes "In a remote and largely unexplored rainforest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, researchers have made an astounding discovery: a new monkey species. The new primate, which is name the lesula and described in a paper in the journal PLoS ONE, was first noticed by scientist and explorer John Hart in 2007. The discovery of a new primate species is rare nowadays. In fact, the lesula is only the second newly discovered monkey in Africa in the past 28 years."

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WOW !! ALREADY OUTNUMBER WINDOWS PHONE USERS !! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-13 16:49 · Score: 1, Funny

Yes, laugh all you want !!
Alan Tudyk, is that you? by imperious_rex · 2012-09-13 16:55 · Score: 1

So that's where you've been hanging out since V, Serenity, and Firefly!!
questions by onyxruby · 2012-09-13 17:23 · Score: 5, Insightful

Science will ask biological type questions. The rest of the world only cares about these questions though:
Is it cute?
Is it tasty?
Can it do tricks?
Beyond that the rest of the world just doesn't care. Kind of sad actually.
1. Re:questions by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-13 17:58 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  But does it blend?
2. Re:questions by istartedi · 2012-09-13 18:33 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Yes, and here on Slashdot they'll want to know if it's working on a new programming language. That beard has a lot of promise.
  
  --
  For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
3. Re:questions by 1u3hr · 2012-09-13 18:36 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  Americans will ask "So, how do the Darwinists explain this? This proves that evolution is just a theory", and "Born in Africa? Where is its long-form birth certificate?"
4. Re:questions by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2012-09-13 18:40 · Score: 1
  
  Is it tasty?
  It doesn't need to be tasty. It just needs to come packaged as part of a "Happy Jungle Meal" with a toy for children. What you call a new species, the Congolese call, "the same old smoked Sunday roast dinner, again."
  For the Democratic Republic of Congo, Benjamin Franklin's quip is valid, "Hunger never saw bad bread." Places that call themselves Democratic Republics usually are neither. Watch out for a name change to the "Democratic Republic of America."
  Now . . . do these bushmeat critters have a natural resistance to AIDS . . . ?
  
  --
  Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
5. Re:questions by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-13 19:02 · Score: 1
  
  Finally a new animal to name an operating system after!
6. Re:questions by skovnymfe · 2012-09-13 19:02 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I'd say the most important question is this: Is it better at writing Shakespeare than other monkeys?
7. Re:questions by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-13 19:12 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  I can't even decide if this is racist or not.
8. Re:questions by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-13 23:00 · Score: 1
  
  A 'new' discovery. It has a local name and has probably been used for bush meat forever but its new. So:
  1. Yes
  2. Yes
  3. Not for long.
9. Re:questions by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2012-09-14 05:46 · Score: 1
  
  Well, I just wanted to make a remark that this is a wasted perfectly good opportunity to name a monkey species after Steve Ballmer, but I am forced to bow before your wit, it's bigger than mine (just like your beard, I suppose).
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
Re:I'd take it with a pinch of salt... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-13 17:30 · Score: 5, Informative

Had you read TFA, you would've learned that they have done genetic testing and confirmed the species' distinctiveness from its closest relative.
Re:Hidden or invisible!? by lxs · 2012-09-13 18:44 · Score: 1

You would prefer it if they ate the monkey?
Re:new species by pwizard2 · 2012-09-13 19:11 · Score: 1

With that face it reminds me of a guy I used to work with.

--
"It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity."
Edible? by dutchwhizzman · 2012-09-13 20:00 · Score: 1

Living in the republic of Congo, most locals will probably want to know what the best way to prepare it's meat is.

--
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Re:new species by Joce640k · 2012-09-13 20:45 · Score: 5, Funny

Oh great, a new breed of monkey. Just what the world needed. I sure am glad that we solved all those other problems so we can care about this.
What are you complaining about? It's one more thing for you to have sex with.

--
No sig today...
Most importantly by XrayJunkie · 2012-09-13 21:15 · Score: 1

Do they guard a huge amount of diamonds?
Hooray for PLoS ONE! by damn_registrars · 2012-09-13 22:46 · Score: 3, Informative

Notice that you can download this entire article, in html or pdf at your choice, for free from anywhere. No paywall or restrictions. You can even post it to your website, redistribute it freely, etc. You can do pretty much whatever you want with this article, short of claiming it to be your own work (if you're not an author).

The Public Library of Science is helping to make more research results publicly accessible through this journal. No, I don't work for them, though I do have an article in PLoS ONE myself.

--
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
1. Re:Hooray for PLoS ONE! by damn_registrars · 2012-09-14 06:51 · Score: 1
  
  Freely available doesn't mean that there's no cost involved
  That is a valid point, though I did not claim anything to the contrary. As consumers of scientific publications, though, slashdot readers notice when they can - or cannot - download a published paper for free.
  
  The authors paid the publisher (PLoS ONE) to have their article produced and published.
  The vast majority of academic journals have charges for the authors, regardless of whether or not the articles are available for free to view and download. You would be hard pressed to find a journal in the biological sciences in particular that doesn't charge for review and publication.
  
  PLoS submissions fees for US authors are $1350.
  Which is on par with most biomedical journals. The only ones that are significantly less than that are the "Hindawi" journals, which have such marginal impact that they aren't even indexed by pubmed.
  
  It is worth noting that both the PLoS and the BMC (BioMedCentral) journals also have "membership" setups where institutions - via their libraries - can become members and have the review / publication charges reduced drastically or waived entirely. For that matter, they also have a mechanism by which you can submit and ask to have the fee waived or reduced, if you find it is beyond what you can pay.
  
  --
  Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Not new, just new to science by Dixie_Flatline · 2012-09-13 23:11 · Score: 1

I read in a different article that the species was known to the native residents of the area. So western scientists have just named something, they didn't discover it. This article makes it sound like they're the first people that have ever seen such a thing.
It's a century ferret by wringles · 2012-09-13 23:19 · Score: 1

Nuff said
Bigfoot! by slashmydots · 2012-09-14 01:10 · Score: 1

Aww, never mind, it's not bigfoot :-( But I'm sure he's next lol.
Monkey looks like that restored Jesus painting by stillnotelf · 2012-09-14 01:31 · Score: 2

Does anyone else think that this new monkey looks a lot like that badly restored painting of Jesus that was in the news a few weeks ago? Monkey (from TFA), Jesus; you decide.
1. Re:Monkey looks like that restored Jesus painting by MarkGriz · 2012-09-14 01:57 · Score: 1
  
  Apparently the researchers "found Jesus"
  
  --
  Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
2. Re:Monkey looks like that restored Jesus painting by j00r0m4nc3r · 2012-09-14 02:30 · Score: 1
  
  I hadn't seen that. Thanks for the laugh!
Re:new species by Nyder · 2012-09-14 02:32 · Score: 2

Oh great, a new breed of monkey. Just what the world needed. I sure am glad that we solved all those other problems so we can care about this.
What are you complaining about? It's one more thing for you to have sex with.
Oh, and you missed this on the page? http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0802-penis-snake-amazon.html

--
Be seeing you...
Re:new species by martas · 2012-09-14 03:03 · Score: 1

You mean one more thing for me not to have sex with...

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weinersmith
Re:new species by rleap · 2012-09-14 03:22 · Score: 1

Technically he could have had sex with it before the discovery, however he just didn't know about. Knowledge is power!
Re:Not much of a discovery .... by Iniamyen · 2012-09-14 04:10 · Score: 1

To be fair though, if the Democratic Republic of Congo is the only place that knows about it, that's pretty much the same thing as an all new discovery. I'm just guessing, but they probably don't have a lot of resources freed up for categorization/conservation/study of new species.
Evolution by redcuffs · 2012-09-14 23:54 · Score: 1

Imagine a beowulf cluster of these.