Malaysian Primatologists Discover Mysterious Monkey – Is it the Real King Kong?

Malaysian primatologists discover a mysterious monkey that has just become known on the island of Borneo. PHOTOS/LS

BANJARMASIN – It was revealed that Gigantopithecus was the closest ape to mythological creature King Kong in Indonesia, made scientists curious to enter Indonesian forests.

Most recently, Malaysian primatologists discovered a mysterious monkey that had just become known on the island of Borneo. Early research suggests that this mysterious monkey is a hybrid of a proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) and a silvery langur (Trachypithecus cristatus).

The mysterious monkey was initially seen in photos from social media as a teenager in 2017. Then in 2020 more recent photos revealed that the monkey was an adult female and possibly having babies of her own.

“She appears to be nursing a baby. We were all amazed, it was so real,” said Nadine Ruppert, a primatologist at Universiti Sains Malaysia (Universitas Sains Malaysia), quoted from the Live Science page, Thursday (5/5/2022).

The hybrid monkey was spotted near the Kinabatangan River on the Malaysian island of Borneo. The researchers suspect that the mysterious monkeys in the photos are descended from a male proboscis monkey and a female langur which share characteristics from the two different species.

“We concluded from the photographer’s observations that male proboscis monkeys mate with female langurs in the area. There are mixed groups where the female proboscis monkeys even care for baby silver langurs,” said Ruppert.

Especially in that location (Kinabatangan River) a line of proboscis monkeys and silvery langurs can be found. These two monkey species look very different.

Previously, this giant ape, lived in the semi-tropical forests of southern China and Southeast Asia 300,000 years ago. However, very little is known about the giant’s physical form or behavior.

After years of research and analysis of the incomplete mandibular fossil remains and teeth, scientists concluded this ape was identical to apes in Southeast Asia.

According to Herve Bocherens, a researcher at the University of Tübingen in Germany, some of these fossil remains are certainly not sufficient to determine whether the animal was bipedal or quadrupedal, and what its body proportions were.

However, Herve firmly confirmed that orangutans are the closest relatives of Gigantopithecus, which have red or black and golden colors.

(wbs)

2023-07-09 13:26:25
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