The Makassar tarsier (''Tarsius fuscus'') is a species of
tarsier
Tarsiers ( ) are haplorhine primates of the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was once more widespread, all of its species living today are found in Maritime Southeast ...
. 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
Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...
, near
Makassar
Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Med ...
. 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
Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Med ...
.
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, the ...
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
Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite.
Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...
and arboreal
Arboreal locomotion is the Animal locomotion, 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. Th ...
.[ Like all ''Tarsius'', ''T. fuscus'' is exclusively ]carnivorous
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...
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