The Makassar tarsier (''Tarsius fuscus'') is a species of tarsier. Its range is in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

in the southwestern peninsula of the island of Sulawesi, near Makassar. At one point the taxon was downgraded to a junior synonym of the

spectral tarsier The spectral tarsier (''Tarsius spectrum'', also called ''Tarsius tarsier'') is a species of tarsier found on the island of Selayar in Indonesia. It is apparently less specialized than the Philippine tarsier or Horsfield's tarsier; for example, ...

(''T. tarsier''). However, when that species' range was restricted to the population on a single island near Sulawesi, this nomen was resurrected to contain the remainder of that species.

Taxonomic confusion

The taxonomy of the tarsiers from Sulawesi has long been confused. ''T. fuscus'' was initially described by Fischer in 1804. The species was subsequently renamed twice inadvertently, as ''T. fuscomanus'' in 1812 by Geoffroy and as ''T. fischeri'' in 1846 by Burmeister. In 1953

William Charles Osman Hill Dr William Charles Osman Hill FRSE FZS FLS FRAI (13 July 1901 – 25 January 1975) was a British anatomist, primatologist, and a leading authority on primate anatomy during the 20th century. He is best known for his nearly completed eight-vol ...

concluded that the type locality of ''T. spectrum'' was actually Makassar, although it was stated to have come from

Ambon Ambon may refer to: Places * Ambon Island, an island in Indonesia ** Ambon, Maluku, a city on Ambon Island, the capital of Maluku province ** Governorate of Ambon, a colony of the Dutch East India Company from 1605 to 1796 * Ambon, Morbihan, a c ...

. As a result, Hill concluded that ''T. fuscus'' was a junior synonym of ''T. spectrum''. ''T. spectrum'' was later determined to be a junior synonym of ''T. tarsier''. In 2010, Groves restricted ''T. tarsier'' to just those tarsiers on the island of Selayar, making the name ''T. fuscus'' valid once again for the tarsiers near Makassar.

Description

The Makassar tarsier has generally reddish-brown fur. The hair at the end of the tail is black. It has shorter

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...

and shorter toothrows than most other tarsiers. It also has shorter hind feet than other tarsiers. The tail is shorter relative to body size than most tarsiers, representing 143% to 166% of the body length.

Natural history

All ''Tarsius'' species are nocturnal and

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. The habitats pose nu ...

. Like all ''Tarsius'', ''T. fuscus'' is exclusively carnivorous and insectivorous, generally capturing prey by leaping on it.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7686752 Tarsiers Endemic fauna of Indonesia Mammals of Sulawesi Primates of Indonesia Mammals described in 1804 Taxa named by Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim