Taxonomic Implications of a Field Study of Morphot

Authors: K S Chetan Nag P Pramod K Praveen Karanth

Publish Date: 2011/03/05

Volume: 32, Issue: 4, Pages: 830-848

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Abstract

The Hanuman langur is one of the most widely distributed and morphologically variable nonhuman primates in South Asia Even though it has been extensively studied the taxonomic status of this species remains unresolved due to incongruence between various classification schemes This incongruence we believe is largely due to the use of plastic morphological characters such as coat color in classification Additionally these classification schemes were largely based on reanalysis of the same set of museum specimens To bring greater resolution in Hanuman langur taxonomy we undertook a field survey to study variation in external morphological characters among Hanuman langurs The primary objective of this study is to ascertain the number of morphologically recognizable units morphotypes of Hanuman langur in peninsular India and to compare our field observations with published classification schemes We typed five colorindependent characters for multiple adults from various populations in South India We used the presenceabsence matrix of these characters to derive the pairwise distance between individuals and used this to construct a neighborjoining NJ tree The resulting NJ tree retrieved six distinct clusters which we assigned to different morphotypes These morphotypes can be identified in the field by using a combination of five diagnostic characters We determined the approximate distributions of these morphotypes by plotting the sampling locations of each morphotype on a map using GIS software Our field observations are largely concordant with some of the earliest classification schemes but are incongruent with recent classification schemes Based on these results we recommend Hill Ceylon Journal of Science Colombo 21277305 1939 and Pocock Primates and carnivora in part pp 97–163 London Taylor and Francis 1939 classification schemes for future studies on Hanuman langursThe study was financially supported by the Department of Biotechnology Government of India BT/PR7127/BCE/08/445/2006 and Ministry of Environment and Forest We thank the forest departments of Maharashtra Goa Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh Forest for permissions and cooperation We thank M S Chaitra S P Vijayakumar KVGururaja P O Nameer K A Subramanian V V Sivan L M Bhat H N Kumara Ullasa Kodandaramiah Sheshagiri Rao Harish Bhat Manjunath Shetty Soumya Prasad Sanjay Molur Anjana Shenoy Anantha Krishna Sharma Laurens Verwijs Martin Zaruba Hanka Svobodova Srinivas Udupa Atul Joshi Yeshwanth Mahale Jayant Mahale Rishikesh Desai Kiran Rahalkar Sridhar Gadiyar Shobha Varadaraj Rajashekar Hippargi Nitin Sawanth Vishnupriya Kolipakkam Achyuthan Karthick Suresh Hari and Krishnamani for their valuable support Sudheera and Avinash helped us with drawing the maps We also thank Gopal Unnikrishnan Kurup Ravi Chellam Anindya Sinha Ajith Kumar Mewa Singh Niranjan V Joshi members of Karanth laboratory and the reviewers for their constructive comments We would also like to thank Rohini Balakrishnan R Sukumar TV Ramachandra Kusuma R Goli Pilikula biological park and Bombay Natural History Society for their help and assistance

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