Randrianasolo's sportive lemur explained

Randrianasolo's sportive lemur (Lepilemur randrianasoloi), or the Bemaraha sportive lemur, is a sportive lemur endemic to a small area of western Madagascar. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Taxonomy and phylogenetics

Randrianasolo's sportive lemur was originally described in 2006 as L. randriansoli, in honor of the Malagasy researcher Georges Randrianasolo.^[1] However, the name was misspelled and was corrected to L. randrianasoloi in 2009.^[2] The original 2006 description was entirely online, and therefore did not meet the pre-2012 ICZN standards to be a valid name.^[3] It was therefore given a follow-up description in 2017.

Genetic analyses show Randrianasolo's sportive lemur to be sister to the Antafia sportive lemur.^[4]

Description

Randrianasolo's sportive lemur differs from all other members of genus Lepilemur, except the antafia sportive lemur and the red-tailed sportive lemur, by its number of chromosomes (2N=40). It differs from the other two species by its slightly smaller size, narrower but longer head, and cytochrome b sequence. Additionally, the hind feet are longer than in the red-tailed sportive lemur.

It has a total length of about 49to, of which 21- is the tail.^[5]

Distribution and habitat

Randrianasolo's sportive lemur inhabits dry deciduous forests in a small region of western Madagascar. Known localities include Andramasay forest, Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park and a few other nearby forest fragments. It is estimated to occupy less than 2,200 km² and is found between 47 and 139 metres above sea level.

It has been proposed that the natural northern and southern limits of the species's range are the Manambolo river and Tsiribihina river, respectively. However, this has not been tested empirically.

Threats

The most pressing threat to Randrianasolo's sportive lemur is the clearing of forests within its range for agriculture and timber extraction. Additionally, an 87% reduction in this species's range is expected by 2080 due to climate change alone.^[6]

Notes and References

1. Andriaholinirina . Nicole . Fausser . Jean-Luc . Roos . Christian . Zinner . Dietmar . Thalmann . Urs . Rabarivola . Clément . Ravoarimanana . Iary . Ganzhorn . Jörg U . Meier . Bernhard . Hilgartner . Roland . Walter . Lutz . Zaramody . Alphonse . Langer . Christoph . Hahn . Thomas . Zimmermann . Elke . December 2006 . Molecular phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the sportive lemurs (Lepilemur, Primates) . BMC Evolutionary Biology . en . 6 . 1 . 17 . 10.1186/1471-2148-6-17 . free . 1471-2148 . 1397877 . 16504080. 2006BMCEE...6...17A .
2. Hoffman . M. . Grubb . P. . Groves . C.P. . Hutterer . R. . Van der Straeten . E. . Simmons . N. . Bergmans . W. . A synthesis of African and western Indian Ocean Island mammal taxa (Class: Mammalia) described between 1988 and 2008: an update to Allen (1939) and Ansell (1989) . Zootaxa . 2009 . 2205 . 1–36 . 10.11646/zootaxa.2205.1.1 .
3. Web site: Electronic publication made available with amendment to the Code International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature . 2024-07-12 . www.iczn.org.
4. Lei . Runhua . Frasier . Cynthia L. . Hawkins . Melissa T. R. . Engberg . Shannon E. . Bailey . Carolyn A. . Johnson . Steig E. . McLain . Adam T. . Groves . Colin P. . Perry . George H. . Nash . Stephen D. . Mittermeier . Russell A. . Louis . Edward E. . 2016-10-03 . Phylogenomic Reconstruction of Sportive Lemurs (genus Lepilemur) Recovered from Mitogenomes with Inferences for Madagascar Biogeography . Journal of Heredity . 108 . 2 . en . 107–119 . 10.1093/jhered/esw072 . 28173059 . 0022-1503.
5. Book: Garbutt, Nick . Mammals of Madagascar, A Complete Guide . 2007 . 132.
6. Brown . Jason L. . Yoder . Anne D. . 2015 . Shifting ranges and conservation challenges for lemurs in the face of climate change . Ecology and Evolution . en . 5 . 6 . 1131–1142 . 10.1002/ece3.1418 . 2045-7758 . 4377258 . 25859320. 2015EcoEv...5.1131B .