By Susan Milius
After 21 years without a new kind of monkey being reported in Africa, two research teams working independently in different mountain ranges have described the same novel species. And other researchers, after poking through meat for sale in Southeast Asia, report a rodent that they say justifies a new family among mammals, the first in 31 years.
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The monkey species, now called the highland mangabey or Lophocebus kipunji, has turned up at locations in southern Tanzania 370 kilometers apart. One discovery came from scientists’ curiosity about stories around Mount Rungwe of an elusive monkey. In December 2003, Tim Davenport of Mbeya, Tanzania, who works for the New York–based Wildlife Conservation Society, and his team got a good-enough look to recognize it as a new species.