Mouse lemurs are small, nocturnal primates of the genus Microcebus. Like all other lemurs, they are native to the island-nation of Madagascar.
They have a combined head, body and tail length of less than 11 inches (27 cm) making them the most diminutive of the primates.
Recognized as two species 20 years ago, mouse lemurs now comprise 24 species, largely diagnosed from mtDNA sequence data.
The three newly-discovered Microcebus species are named M. ganzhorni, M. manitatra and M. boraha.
“Microcebus ganzhorni (or Ganzhorn’s mouse lemur) is named
after the ecologist Prof. Jörg Ganzhorn from Hamburg University, who has
been engaged in research and protection of lemurs for more than thirty
years,” said team member Dr. Peter Kappeler, a researcher with the
German Primate Center and co-author on a study published in the journal Molecular Ecology.
“It was Prof. Ganzhorn who initiated the field research of the German Primate Center in Madagascar in the 1990s.”read more
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