
New Species of Orangutan Is Rarest Great Ape - nature24
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/new-orangutan-species-sumatra-borneo-indonesia-animals/
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pavement
It makes sense that there might be a lack of awareness for a subgroup that
maintains a low profile.

Inspection of the skeleton for specific details, and genetic tests prove that
while interbreeding is possible, this other group was separated by geography
for generations. That's not something that would be immediately obvious by
unaided observation.

Their vocalization is different, but a detail like that would be quickly
challenged, if put forward as proof on its own.

It's interesting that these subtleties permit the identification of a distinct
species. I would have thought deeper, more obvious difference would be
required, but I guess this level of taxonomy is mostly just for the sake of
utility, when examining specimens.

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nordsieck
> I would have thought deeper, more obvious difference would be required

What you are witnessing is a small skirmish between the Lumpers and the
Splitters [1].

The really interesting thing to me, is that basically everyone in Academia is
a Splitter these days except when talking about humans, where everyone
suddenly converts to Lumpers.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpers_and_splitters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpers_and_splitters)

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Someone
That’s because being a Splitter brings more status, citations, and a better
career.

Academia doesn’t value negative results (‘we spent years and tons of money on
this, but it looks like there’s only one species’ or ‘we found another few
homo erectus bone fragments’) as high as positive ones (‘a new species of
great ape’ or ‘the first evidence for a missing link’)

There likely also is bias in what appears in the press. That will affect a
layman’s perception of the distribution between Lumpers and Splitters.

(For human languages, governments often push towards splitting. “A language is
a dialect with an army”)

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taejo
> (For human languages, governments often push towards splitting. “A language
> is a dialect with an army”)

Goes both ways. Nationalists often push towards lumping language varieties
spoken inside the country (e.g. calling Low German "German" and not a variety
of Dutch); sometimes they also split with the variety spoken in another
country (calling Dutch "Dutch" and not a variety of German).

Note: I don't mean to imply anything about the current governments of Germany
or the Netherlands, but more about the time around the formation of Dutch and
German national identities.

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robbrown451
It isn't "newly discovered." Even the article title doesn't say that. It is a
new species, as in "newly recategorized as a separate species." Big
difference, and the title on HN is essentially clickbait.

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dang
Ok, changed back.

