Saturday, September 15, 2012

Melancholy Monkey: Long-lost Cousin

Anyone who saw the story this week of the new (to science) monkey, called the "lesula" by locals in the Congo, and  Cercopithecus lomamiensis in scientific circles, had to be struck by the intense beauty of the creature. I keep thinking of these soft, brown, seemingly empathetic eyes when I'm alone. As Jonathan Jones notes in his lovely article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/13/lesula-new-monkey-familiar?intcmp=239), "A long human-looking nose completes the anthropomorphic sense that we are looking at a close relative. Monkeys are not as closely related to humans as chimpanzees or gorillas are but still, we swung together once, a long time ago." Hello, old friend. I hope we can make our relationship last, for I'd love to see you often!

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