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[rejectomorph]

Today's issue of the Sacramento Bee has a nice AP wire service photo of John Cleese kissing a lemur. Well, not kissing, exactly; he is actually holding a piece of fruit in his mouth, and the lemur is taking a bite of it. Alas, that the picture is not on the sacbee web site, or any other web site I can find.

It is a cute picture, but it is the caption that is amusing. It reads, in part; "...lemurs belong to a family of prosimian primates with large eyes, a long tail, a pointed puzzle [sic] and soft, woolly fur."

Hmmm. I'll have to ask hyperina about that "pointed puzzle." Does it mean that the puzzle is physically attenuated, or does it mean that it is a not pointless puzzle? These wire service journalists are sometimes careless in their use of language. Had the caption been written by a lemur, I'm sure the meaning would have been clear.

Comments

[shane.livejournal.com]

i think the writer probably meant "pointed muzzle", a primitive trait found in many of the lower primates. also, the term "prosimian" (once used to group lemurs, lorises, and tarsiers) is falling out of use due to a myriad of genetic testing that suggests an affinity between tarsiers and the higher primates. the terms "strepsirhine" and "haplorhine" are now thought to be more correct. strepsirhines include the extant malagasy lemurs and lorises while haplorhines are limited to tarsiers, old world monkeys, neotropical monkeys, lesser apes, and great apes.

[rejectomorph]

You don't sound like a smart ass at all. I'm always impressed by the extent of your knowledge in the natural sciences.

[hyperina.livejournal.com]

awesome