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Taxonomic note: Bunopithecus: A genus-level taxon for the hoolock gibbon (Hylobates hoolock)
Leonard A Prouty1, Philip D Buchanan2, William S Pollitzer3
1Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Saugus, California.
Abstract:
The recent discovery that the hoolock gibbon (Hylobates hoolock [Harlan, 1834]) has a karyotype distinct from all other hylobatids provides a new and strong motive for revising gibbon taxonomy and establishing hoolocks in a separate, higher taxon. Revising Groves's taxonomy of 1972, we propose that hoolock, along with the fossil species sericus, occupy a subgenus, Bunopithecus. With the newly added taxon, the genus Hylobates would thus contain four subgenera: Bunopithecus, Hylobates, Nomascus, and Symphalangus.
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