Three New Lemurs Discovered In Madagascar

Madagascar is famous for its well over 70 species of lemurs, primitive primates which are distant relations to humanity. The formal announcement regarding the discovery of the three new species was made at a conservation conference on Wednesday in the Malagasy capital. The species have been named Microcebus mittermeieri, after Russell A. Mittermeier, the president of green group Conservation International and a renowned field primatologist, Microcebus jollyae, after Alison Jolly, a pioneering lemur researcher from Princeton University, and Microcebus simmonsi, after Dr. Lee Simmons, director of the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska.