The preliminary finding, reported in a recent issue of the British journal Nature, means either that a new subspecies of chimpanzees has been discovered, or the existing division into three subspecies is erroneous and a new family tree must be devised, according to the researchers. Either result could require more aggressive conservation plans for the species, which is endangered the finding, the anthropologists suggest that the correct name for it is Pan troglodytes vellerosus. They are as clearly defined as the other named subspecies, so if this holds true with additional samples, you either collapse the other subspecies or name a new one. Burton's skin may have come from the same subspecies as that discovered by the New York researchers. Three subspecies of common chimpanzee have been generally recognized, based on geographical, morphological and genetic criteria.
Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii in East Africa.
Though there are scattered groups of chimpanzees in Africa west of Ghana and east to Nigeria, all genetic samples of the verus subspecies prior to this study had come from west of Ghana, a factor that may account for their considerable genetic divergence from the others. The study found as much difference between the Nigerian chimps and the verus subspecies as between the two other recognized subspecies. That result, in itself, is not enough to declare a new subspecies, the researchers said, but it does throw the existing schema into question. If the Nigerian chimpanzees turn out not to be sufficiently different to be regarded as a distinct subspecies, then the other groups of central and eastern chimpanzees now recognized as subspecies should only be considered populations of Pan troglodytes troglodytes, they said. They propose two possible revisions to the existing schema, leaving either two or four subspecies.