New Monkey Sub Species Discovered in Brazilian Amazon

The Brazilian rainforest has ceded one of its secrets to the modern world; a new sub-species of monkey heretofore never seen. The monkey boasts a super long tail and it weighs barely a pound.

According to news sources, researchers at the Brazilian Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have discovered a sub-species of monkey in a remote part of the Amazon rain forest. The US-based wildlife conservation group was first spotted back in 2007 and is a relative of the saddleback tamarin monkeys so well known for their distinctively marked backs. The US-based wildlife conservation group was first spotted back in 2007 during an expedition into the state of Amazonas in northwestern Brazil. It is a distinct relative of the saddleback tamarin monkeys so well known for their distinctively marked backs. The little primate is mostly gray and dark brown in color with a distinctly mottled "saddle,” and has been named Mura's saddleback tamarin. It weighs a little less than a pound (213 grams) and is 9 inches (240 millimeters) tall with a foot-long (320 millimeter) tail. According to Fabio Rohe, a spokesman from WCS:

"This newly described monkey shows that even today there are major wildlife discoveries to be made. This discovery should serve as a wake-up call that there is still so much to learn from the world's wild places, yet humans continue to threaten these areas with destruction."

A major highway that is currently being paved through the area is threatening the existence of this monkey as well as many other creatures that call the rain forest home. Conservationists fear the highway as well as a proposed gas pipeline and two hydro-electric dams could cause severe deforestation over the next few decades. The Wildlife Conservation Society helped establish the Mamirauá, Amanã, and Piagaçu-Purus Sustainable Development Reserves in Brazil, which represent some of the largest protected blocks of rainforest on the planet. Progress and technology may claim the day and the rainforest, but how scary for this poor little monkey seeking only peace and solitude from a terrifying world it cannot possibly understand.