New ape species discovered 科学家发现类人猿新物种 本集内容 New ape species discovered 科学家发现类人猿新物种

学习要点 有关“Animal discovery 动物的发现”的词汇

边看边答 How many species of orangutan are there following this new discovery?

The remote mountain forests of Sumatra are home to some of our closest ape relatives. And a small population here, first discovered just 20 years ago, has been hiding a scientific secret.

This is the Tapanuli orangutan - a species new to science. Until now, it was thought that there were just two distinct species of orangutan – Sumatran and Bornean, like this big male here. But this new study shows that there are actually three – a tiny population has been hidden away and isolated by hundreds of thousands of years of evolution.

Early DNA analysis suggested these animals were peculiar compared to the other Sumatran apes. So scientists embarked on a detailed study examining what they ate and their unique calls.

Years of painstaking genetic comparisons, enabled scientists to reconstruct the animal's evolutionary history. The final piece of the puzzle though, was tiny but consistent differences between the Sumatran, and this, the Tapanuli orangutan skull.

Professor Serge Wich, Liverpool John Moores University:

“It’s an amazing breakthrough, I think. There's only seven, if we exclude ourselves, of great apes species. So adding one to that very small list is spectacular."

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