No more than 800 orangutans from this newly identified species remain
Endangered population represents oldest surviving red ape lineage
By
Bruce Bower
12:00pm, November 2, 2017
Orangutans living in forested foothills on the Indonesian island of Sumatra represent a previously unknown species, researchers say.
Skeletal and genetic evidence puts these apes on a separate evolutionary trajectory from other orangutans in Sumatra (Pongo abelii) and Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), says a team led by evolutionary anthropologist Michael Krützen of the University of Zurich. The researchers named the new species Pongo tapanuliensis, or the Tapanuli orangutan. Krützen’s team reports its findings online November 2 in Current Biology.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/tapanuli-orangutans-endangered-sumatra
