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[Kesson Magid <kanadadry AT yahoo.co.uk>]

30 July 2005 
NewScientist.com news service 
Emma Young 
 
One more Chimp?

A fifth subspecies of common chimpanzee has been
lurking under primatologists' noses for decades,
according to a new study of chimp skulls. Colin Groves
of the Australian National University in Canberra
believes that Pan troglodytes marungensis should join
the four already recognised subspecies. "The data and
the arguments are compelling," says Tom Butynski, a
chimp expert and head of Conservation International's
East Africa biodiversity hotspots programme.

Current chimp taxonomy recognises P. t. verus and P.
t. vellerosus in west Africa, P. t. troglodytes in the
centre and P. t. schweinfurthii - the group into which
the smaller animals have traditionally been lumped -
in the east, as well as Pan paniscus, the bonobo or
pygmy chimp, south of the Congo river.

Now, from measurements including skull length and the
breadth between the orbital cavities of 96 skulls from
the P. t. schweinfurthii region, Groves argues that
these chimps should be divided into a north-western
group - the "real" P. t. schweinfurthii - and a
south-eastern group, P. t. marungensis. The name
marungensis was originally used to label another chimp
species, but was culled from chimp taxonomy during a
radical overhaul in 1932.

The "real" P. t. schweinfurthii have large skulls and
broad braincases. P. t. marungensis is smaller,
relatively broad between the eyes, and with a
relatively long palate. P. t. marungensis is also
smaller, weighing 30 to 35 kilograms on average,
compared with 50 to 60 kilograms for P. t.
schweinfurthii.

"People have been wondering for a long time why the
body weights of chimps at places like Gombe in
Tanzania appeared to be so small. Now we find that it
is because there is a small, separate subspecies,"
Groves says. He suggests that P. t. marungensis might
account for about a third of the estimated 50,000 to
100,000 chimps in the schweinfurthii region. His
findings are due to be published in the next issue of
the journal Australasian Primatology.

While more work is needed to confirm the finding, the
debate is not purely academic, but vital for
conserving diversity. P. t. marungensis is well
protected and has been closely studied by
primatologists, including Jane Goodall at her research
camp at Gombe. But P. t. schweinfurthii is being
hunted for bush meat, and according to the new
division, now appears poorly protected.




        
        
                
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