CHINESE SKYWALKER

The funky new gibbon named after a Star Wars character

It’s not every day that a new species of ape is scientifically described and named. Dubbed the Skywalker hoolock gibbon (yes, its discoverers are Star Wars fans), but known formally as Hoolock tianxing, this brown-furred, white-eyebrowed denizen of rainforests within Gaoligongshan nature reserve in southwestern China’s Yunnan province had been the subject of primatological studies for some time. However, it had not been recognised as a species in its own right, taxonomically separate from both of the two previously recognised hoolock species, until a research team led by Fan Peng-Fei from China’s Sun Yat-sen University began to suspect that subtle differences in its facial markings might indicate this. Their suspicions were confirmed when comparative genetic and morphological analyses with other gibbon species were conducted. Also existing in neighbouring Myanmar, this newly revealed species is apparently represented by no more than around 200 individuals, so it should be officially categorised as endangered, especially as its continuing existence is already threatened by habitat loss. www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/ jan/11/new-species-ofgibbon-discovered-in-china 11 Jan 2017; http://www. sci-news.com/biology/newspecies-skywalker-hoolockgibbon-04533.html 13 Jan 2017.