Whether truly a new species or just a subspecies, the find should shed light on how species form. Primatologist Russell Mittermeier of Conservation International, in Washington, D.C., believes the monkey “squeaked through the mountains separating the narrow coastal strip from the inland and speciated there” untold millennia ago. Now biologists can investigate what conditions shaped the little sadeyed primate, which seems to represent a separate evolutionary line from the usual South American spider and organ grinders’ monkeys.
The challenge will be to find an answer before development pushes the creatures into extinction. The jungle on Brazil’s Atlantic coast has shrunk to about 7 percent of its original size, and hotel developers are eying the tamarins’ habitat. “We are losing biodiversity faster than we can document it,” says Martins. “Species disappear before we can even name them.”
