New African Monkey

Science Daily reports on a monkey previously unknown to science. It's the second African monkey to be "discovered" in 28 years.

Conservation biologist John Hart heard that a schoolmaster's daughter at the edge of a forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had an unusual pet monkey known locally as a "lesula." Hart tracked its growth for 19 months, and then observed individuals in the wild. The lesula spends most of its time on the ground foraging in small groups.

The Guardian describes the face as sensitive and intelligent, "like it is sitting for its portrait by Rembrandt. It reveals a staggeringly insightful, wise, and melancholy face. Like Rembrandt's son Titus in the portrait of him by his father that hangs in London's Wallace Collection, the lesula looks right back at its beholder, calm and pensive, examining you as you examine it. Its eyes have the depth and frankness of those seen in moving portraits on Roman-era mummies from the Fayoum, or in Antonello da Messina's haunting portrait of a man gazing back out of a glassy oil panel."