But the news is not all good - some of the newly named species may already be endangered, joining the dozens of other primate species that may face extinction this century. The scientists detailed the primate discoveries at the 18th biennial congress of the International Primatological Society held in Adelaide, Australia from January 7-12.
Lemurs are unique to Madagascar, an island nation the size of Texas, off the east African coast.
The marmosets, types of squirrel sized monkeys, were found in the Rio Madeira Basin in South Central Amazonia, Brazil. What is so remarkable is that this is the largest number of primate discoveries that have occurred in the past century at the same time. Urs Thalman, Thomas Geissmann, Colin Groves, Rodin Rasoloarison, Steven Goodman, and Joerg Ganzhorn conducted the studies and published their findings in the December 2000 issue of the journal. With these latest discoveries, the number of known lemur species total 61. This brings Madagascar into second place globally in primate species diversity, with Brazil claiming the most species at 79.