Pictures of the lesula, the new species of monkey, courtesy of Kate Detwiler

 Fabulous drawing of the lesula by Kimio Honda. You don't often see scientific illustration taken to such artistic heights.

 Georgette with her lesula. Photo by John Hart.

 

Adult lesula. Photo by Maurice Emetshu.

 Juvenile lesulas. Photo by John Hart.

 Captive lesula. Photo by John Hart.

Lesula with marantaceae. Photo by John Hart.

New Species of Monkey Found in the Congo, by my Neighbor

Exciting discovery of a cute and charismatic new species of monkey, Cercopithecus lomamiensis sp. nov. This doesn't happen every day.

Here's a link to the article in PLoS ONE:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0044271

Kate Detwiler, the corresponding author, sits in the office next to mine. I helped her gear up for the trip to the Congo, but the courage it took was all her own. I don't know if I'd go.

If you're not sure whether you want to plow through the peer-reviewed article, here's a link to a National Geographic article about the discovery.