September 24, 2011
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Play the game and see if you can identify the mammal shown here. The photo’s a bit rubbish, but that’s deliberate in order to make this more of a challenge. As always, the winner receives a smug sense of self-satisfaction. Let battle commence! (and, yes, this is an effort to get more than c. 20 comments, so don’t be shy).
UPDATE (added 26th Sept 2011): And the answer is…. well done to those of you who identified it as an Allen’s swamp monkey Allenopithecus nigroviridis (Bret Newton and Dartian) – this is the right answer. Some of the more peculiar features of this species aren’t visible (pointed ears, facial disk, white chin), but the stocky proportions (more like those of a macaque than a guenon), rather homogenous, olive-khaki coat colour, proportionally short tail and suggestion of a wide-cheeked face should have distinguished it from other cercopithecids. The tail should come to a point and not be blunt as it is in this animal – maybe the tip was damaged. It was photographed in captivity in the UK, hence the temperate flora. Bit disappointed that no-one identified it as a ropen or gorgonopsian, but otherwise, thanks for playing.
About the Author: Darren Naish is a science writer, technical editor and palaeozoologist (affiliated with the University of Southampton, UK). He mostly works on Cretaceous dinosaurs and pterosaurs but has an avid interest in all things tetrapod. He has been blogging at Tetrapod Zoology since 2006.
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Stab in the dark but maybe a guenon? I was thinking possibly a blue monkey, Cercopithecus mitis?
Link to thisIs it a L’Hoest’s monkey?
Link to thismacaque?
Link to thisCercopithecine of some form – a species of Macaque at a guess…?!
Link to thisAllen’s Swamp Monkey (Allenopithecus nigroviridis)
Link to this“Marco Tedesco says:”
I’d say Cercopithecus albogularis or C. mitis.
Link to thisMy initial gut feeling was an Olive Baboon Papio anubis… I’ll give this some more thought though.
Link to thisBret: “Allen’s Swamp Monkey (Allenopithecus nigroviridis)”
This. (Notice the relatively short tail.)
Link to thisCercopithecus ascanius schmidti.
Link to thisIs it a very blurry photo of Lionel Mallison?
Link to thisIt looks almost too stocky to be a guenon, but the markings on the face and the head shape don’t look like a macaque. The thing that’s throwing me off is looks like a temperate forest. And if it’s a guenon are parts of africa temperate?
Link to thisNot a C. mitis I think- at least not like a southern one, which I’m familiar with. Like the idea of an Allen’s swamp monkey, but I’ll see your swamp monkey and raise you a Bale monkey, C djamdjamensis
Link to thisMona monkey fer sure.
Link to thisIt’s just a guy in a monkey suit. You can’t fool me!
Link to thisThe word that sprang unbidden to my lips as I looked at the photo was “baboon,” but I don’t know my monkeys in any detail. So: some sort of cercopithecid(*) is all I’m really confident of. (I don’t see much disagreement on that point, though, looking at responses 1-9 and 11-13.)
(*) Umm. Some Old-World Monkey: was Cercopithecidae sensu lato at least once used with that coverage, or should i just stop using big words?
Link to thisskipped the comments to put out this, unadulturated by knowledge, opinion: It’s a monkey, and I’m guessing a macaque, but Wikipedia was quite uncooperative in providing a picture with exactly lighting situation and orientation of subject.
Link to thisNow, I’ll read the comments and see what everyone else thinks.
My first thought on seeing that was a blue monkey, Cercopithecus mitis. The tail might appear short because of being at an angle to the camera. It doesn’t seem like an Allen’s Swamp Monkey to me. The general sturdy appearance seems to rule out the more slender species like the Mona monkey. It might be a macaque… I don’t know those well at all.
Link to thisIt’s the short-looking tail that is getting to me. It might be a mitis/albogularus after all, but the tail still looks odd.
Link to thisit could be a Samango monkey (Cercopithecus albogularis) from Eastern and Southern Africa; i have seen the South African subspecies in the wild, and its colour is very similar to the one of the specimen in the picture.
Link to thisTail might have gotten bitten off. Without a good view of the face, you have to be a Cercopithecologist to figure this one out.
There’s your twenty, Darren.
Link to this@longhile – I dunno, it looks too monochrome to be a samango; I’ve seen them lots of times – but you know, I’m probably wrong, it’s pretty fuzzy pic and like heteromeles says, it might have lost its tail tip
Link to thisThat’s not any species of Cercopithecus. Cercopithecus (and Chlorocebus) don’t have ‘sexual swelling’. Allenopithecus has (i.e., the individual in the photograph is a female).
Allen: “I don’t know my monkeys in any detail”
You, of all people, should at the very least familiarize yourself with the species known as, ahem, Allen’s swamp monkey.
Link to thisAnd the answer is… well done to those of you who identified it as an Allen’s swamp monkey Allenopithecus nigroviridis (Bret Newton and Dartian) – this is the right answer. Some of the more peculiar features of this species aren’t visible (pointed ears, facial disk, white chin), but the stocky proportions (more like those of a macaque than a guenon), rather homogenous, olive-khaki coat colour, proportionally short tail and suggestion of a wide-cheeked face should have distinguished it from other cercopithecids. The tail should come to a point and not be blunt as it is in this animal – maybe the tip was damaged. It was photographed in captivity in the UK, hence the temperate flora. Bit disappointed that no-one identified it as a ropen or gorgonopsian, but otherwise, thanks for playing.
Darren
Link to thisHow could it be a gorgonopsian when you initially said it was a mammal?
Link to thisWoo-hoo. What do I win? I get to see this species at work all the time. It is pretty recognizable due to its odd body proportions.
Link to thisshameless ploy to get comments, Darren. Brilliant!!
Link to thisYou got it
Once upon a time I could bank on c. 20 comments guaranteed… alas, these are desperate times.
Darren
Link to thisDesert Navy (comment 24): “How could it be a gorgonopsian when you initially said it was a mammal?”. True, but there’s noble tradition to consider (the tradition of Tet Zoo ‘guess the animal’ articles, not the tradition of synapsid evolution or anything).
Darren
Link to thisDarren: “Once upon a time I could bank on c. 20 comments guaranteed… alas, these are desperate times.” Recent comments sidebar would help
Go on, twist Sci Am’s arm.
Link to this