While we knew that the animals known as the Ființe Umane lived in very different locations and communicated differently, ate very different foods, and lived very different lives, some as nearly-solitary animals, others in small family groups, while still others lived in vast communal hives, we thought they were one species. Now, however, thanks to mtDNA analysis, we can show these animals are very different species that, in the past, only rarely cross-bred. A detailed analysis of pelt colors, hair structure, fat layering, and average relative size and weight makes clear these five animals have always been different species.
The announcement is the first time a new and large (over 80-pound) primate has been identified in over 130 years.
Finding new species "hidden amongst the old" is the backbone of our work, and we want to thank our donors for helping fund this pioneering work. With more funding, we think we may yet find more species of Ființe Umane hiding, perhaps in plain sight, in the markets of remote sections of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. We were certainly surprised to find the species we are now calling Ființe Mâncător Grăsime living in the far arctic in snow caves and eating a diet heavy in seal meat.
Not everyone is convinced. Dr. Kofeve Maglo dismissed the Gothenburg announcement as "little more than press release fundraising":
From a biological systematic and evolutionary taxonomical perspective, these continental groups or clusters have no natural meaning or objective biological reality. In fact, the utility of this kind of categorization in research and in clinics can be explained by spatiotemporal parameters and evolutionary forces affecting disease causation and treatment response. A new species? Hardly.
Professor Thurmond concedes that his work is preliminary and that more research is needed.
Of course, the discussion is not over, but we think our work may provide a deeper understanding as to why some species of what were once called Ființe Umane developed along different lines, and are more or less aggressive, intelligent, or biddable. With habitat disruption and the increased trans-border movements that has caused, of course, the old genetic lines are blurring somewhat, but we want to know why they persevered for so long, and we think we may need to intervene in some areas in order to preserve continued species purity.
Dr. Otto Morgenthau of the University of California at Davis, who was not involved in Professor's Thurmond’s research, notes that all species of Ființe have the same number of chromosomes arranged in the exact same number of pairs, and that all the claimed species hybridize freely barring size or behavioral constraints, and they have all produced fertile offspring for millennia.
At some point, I think we need to look up from our DNA bar codes and ask the animals themselves. Do they see themselves as separate species? If we put 50 young Ființe together -- 10 of each putative species -- into a huge zoo enclosure and come back 100 years later, have they interbred? Are they still five separate groups? Are there still big differences in size, pelt color, and hair structure? Are the fish eaters only eating fish, and the nut eaters only eating nuts? When we talk about "genetically distinct species' are we simply saluting differences that in fact make little or no difference to the animal? In this case -- where we know the animals have had some low level of natural crossbreeding or hybridization for millennia -- I think the question is particularly germane. Why is highlighting the differences here so important that it has funded an industry?
Professor Muhakat Sakhira who worked with Thurmond on the Ființe re-classification said the purpose of science was to go where the evidence leads, no matter how uncomfortable it might make the "old" biologists like Morgenthau.
We need to understand the differences so that we know what we are preserving and what we are losing. Once the Ființe Mâncător Grăsime are gone, they will be gone forever.
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