Madagascar's Lemurs: Cryptic diversity or taxonomic inflation?

Abstract

We live in inflationary times. A quarter of a century ago, cigarettes were about $1 a pack in New York City, a bottle of Château Beaucastel set you back $15, and there were 36 different species of lemur alive in Madagascar1 (Table 1). Today the equivalent figures are $7.40, $95, and 83 lemur species2 (Table 1). The increase in dollar prices has a lot to do with the economics of growth, something that obviously cannot be sustained indefinitely on a finite planet. Is the recent inflation in lemur taxonomy any more secure? The question is all the more worth asking because this is no isolated phenomenon: Madagascar's primates have not been alone in multiplying. The same burgeoning of species names has occurred throughout the order Primates3, 4 and beyond,5 provoking both concern and energetic debate.6–9 Interestingly, this debate has largely unfolded among ecologists, conservationists, and other “consumers” of taxonomy; many “producers” seem to be content to generate new taxonomies with a remarkable lack of introspection, as if they were no more than passive consequences of more lofty concerns. And because the same causes underlie taxonomic inflation in Madagascar as elsewhere, this extraordinary island once again presents us with a microcosm of the larger world.

Lemur Diversity in Madagascar

“…The list results from the majority opinion and we hope we have indicated adequately where doubts and controversies exist. Groves (2001Groves ( , 2004 and Tattersall (2007) discussed many of the issues involved in the taxonomic classification of the primates, and the latter author presented contrasting viewpoints for the lemurs in particular.…”

Evolução morfológica no crânio de Lemuriformes (Primates:Strepsirrhini)

“…vários trabalhos se dedicaram a reexaminar os caracteres morfológicos dos Lemuriformes buscando por apomorfias e diferenças consistentes entre eles que pudessem contar sua história evolutiva (Cartmill, 1975;Groves, 1974;Groves and Trueman, 1995;Groves and Eaglen, 1988;Schwartz and Tattersall, 1985;Szalay and Katz, 1973;Szalay et al, 1987;Tattersall and Schwartz, 1974, 1991 (Groves, 2001;Nekaris and Bearder, 2007;Radespiel et al, 2008;Tattersall, 2007;Yoder, 2012). Esses números refletem a recente explosão de trabalhos de campo e estão potencialmente relacionados a fins de conservação, mas também conduziram a uma inflação taxonômica (Tattersall, 2007).…”

“…Esses números refletem a recente explosão de trabalhos de campo e estão potencialmente relacionados a fins de conservação, mas também conduziram a uma inflação taxonômica (Tattersall, 2007).…”

“…No decorrer das últimas duas décadas o número de espécies de Lemuriformes reconhecidas triplicou (chegando a uma centena Mittermeier et al, 2010), sendo que muitas delas apresentam diversi-5 dade críptica ou tratam-se de subespécies (Groves, 2001;Nekaris and Bearder, 2007;Radespiel et al, 2008;Tattersall, 2007;Yoder, 2012). Esses números refletem a recente explosão de trabalhos de campo e estão potencialmente relacionados a fins de conservação, mas também conduziram a uma inflação taxonômica (Tattersall, 2007).…”

“…The Lorisiform primates are the least studied clade of primates (Nekaris and Bearder, 2007), and this lack of information is reflected in collections, because many of these species are rare in museum collections and lack locality infor-25 mation. Furthermore, many Strepsirrhini show high levels of cryptic diversity (Nekaris and Bearder, 2007;Tattersall, 2007), which may be considered as a probable source of error in identification. Thus, some taxonomic difficulties can bias the observed similarities in the species level.…”