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A New Subspecies of Saguinus fuscicollis (Primates, Callitrichidae)

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Abstract

Saddleback tamarins (Saguinus fuscicollis, S. melanoleucus, and S. tripartitus) occur in the upper Amazon, west of the rios Madeira and Mamoré–Guaporé to the Andes. They currently comprise 13 species and subspecies in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Here we report on a previously undescribed subspecies of Saguinus fuscicollis from the interfluvium of the lower rios Madeira and Purus in the central Amazon of Brazil. It is a distinct form with a very pronounced mottling on the back giving the appearance of a saddle, a characteristic shared by the 3 species, and the reason for their collective common name. The lack of a white superciliary chevron and its highly mottled ochraceous-dark brown to black saddle that extends from the scapular region to the base of the tail distinguish the new taxon from Saguinus fuscicollis weddelli. The latter characteristic also distinguishes it from another saddleback tamarin (Saguinus fuscicollis ssp.) that has been reported immediately to the south of its range in the same interfluvium. We compare pelage coloration, external characters and craniometric measurements with its geographically closest relatives, Saguinus fuscicollis weddelli and S. f. avilapiresi, and indicate its probable geographic distribution in a small area between the rios Madeira and Purus, just south of the Rio Amazonas.

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Notes

  1. Van Roosmalen (2003) named the saddleback tamarin he described, but only on his website (http://www.amazonnewspecies.com). Article 11 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) (1999, 4th edition, published by the Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London) states that “To be available, a name or, where relevant, a nomenclatural act must satisfy the following provisions: 11.1 The name or nomenclatural act must have been published, in the meaning of Article 8, after 1757.” Article 8 considers what constitutes published work, and refers to Article 9 that lists what is not considered to be a published work. This includes (9.8) “text or illustrations distributed by means of electronic signals (e.g. by means of the World Wide Web.” Until the description of Van Roosmalen’s (2003) tamarin is published according to the regulations of the ICZN, the name remains unavailable.

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Acknowledgments

This new tamarin subspecies was discovered during an expedition conducted as part of the project Biodiversity of the Madeira–Purus Interfluvium, an initiative of the Geoma network of Brazil’s Ministry of Science and Technology (Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia [MCT]). We thank the staff and curators who gave us access to the Mammal collections of the National Institute for Amazon Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia [INPA]), Manaus, the Emilio Goeldi Museum (Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi [MPEG]), Belém, and the Zoology Museum of the University of São Paulo (Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo [MZUSP]), São Paulo. Petrobrás kindly provided use of a helicopter during the expedition, and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Conservation Leadership Program (CLP) provided financial support to Fabio Röhe. Adriano C. S. Antunes prepared the type specimens. The illustration of Saguinus fuscicollis mura was drawn by Stephen D. Nash, Stony Brook University, New York. We thank an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments.

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Correspondence to Fabio Röhe.

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Röhe, F., e Silva, J.d., Sampaio, R. et al. A New Subspecies of Saguinus fuscicollis (Primates, Callitrichidae). Int J Primatol 30, 533–551 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-009-9358-x

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