Asian Primate Classification

Madagascar's Lemurs: Cryptic diversity or taxonomic inflation?

“…The number of primate species recognized world-wide in some quarters has more than doubled over the past few decades, 74 while actual diversity has, if anything, declined as a result of human activity. In their discussion of Asian primate diversity, Brandon-Jones and colleagues 5 are frank about the problem in recognizing the difficulties posed by intraspecific variation: ''In the foreseeable future there is little likelihood of achieving consensus on the number of Asian primate genera and species : : : there is more realistic hope of reaching agreement on the number of recognizable subspecies.'' This pragmatic conclusion was reached in the service of an ideal of conservation in which preservation of diversity at all levels, down to the most local, was the entirely admirable, if perhaps somewhat unrealistic goal.…”

“…The question is all the more worth asking because this is no isolated phenomenon: Madagascar's primates have not been alone in multiplying. The same burgeoning of species names has occurred throughout the order Primates 3,4 and beyond, 5 provoking both concern and energetic debate. [6][7][8][9] Interestingly, this debate has largely unfolded among ecologists, conservationists, and other ''consumers'' of taxonomy; many ''producers'' seem to be content to generate new taxonomies with a remarkable lack of introspection, as if they were no more than passive consequences of more lofty concerns.…”

Gibbons and hominoid ancestry

“…The family is divided into four genera and as many as 14 to 18 species (Groves, 2001;Brandon-Jones et al, 2004;Thinh et al, 2010). Genus Hylobates (named as subgenera in Groves, 2001) is the most widespread with seven species; Bunopithecus hoolock and Symphalangus syndactylus are monospecific genera, and Nomascus has six species.…”

The phylogenetic species concept and its role in Southeast Asian mammal conservation

“…Groves (2001a) added a fourth subgenus, Bunopithecus, for the hoolock gibbons, but later changed its name to Hoolock (Mootnick and Groves, 2005). These four subgenera were subsequently raised to generic status (Brandon-Jones et al, 2004;Geissmann, 2002), and are now commonly recognised (e.g. Meyer et al, 2012;Takacs et al, 2005).…”

“…The Cao Vit gibbon (Nomascus nasutus) was until 2004 considered a subspecies of N. concolor (Brandon-Jones et al, 2004;Groves, 2001a), and as such the single remaining population of approximately 129 individuals on the Sino-Vietnamese border would have been considered a low priority compared to healthier populations in China, specifically Wuliangshan and Ailaoshan. However, it has now become the second most threatened gibbon taxon after the Hainan gibbon (Nomascus hainanus) and considerable conservation funding flows to this population as a result.…”