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The good news: After decades of wondering whether this immaculately bearded monkey really existed, but not being able to confirm it because of never-ending violence in Colombia, scientists say they’ve finally found evidence of the Caqueta titi monkey. The bad news: Because of habitat destruction, the cat-sized redbeard primate is critically endangered.

The new species joins about 20 other titi monkeys known in the Amazon basin. They appear to be monogamous to a level that puts humans to shame, says expedition leader Thomas Defler, whose study (pdf) appears in Primate Conservation. The Caqueta monkey couples have about one child per year that they raise together, and that isn’t the end of their absurd adorableness.

“All of the babies purr like cats too,” Defler added. “When they feel very content they purr towards each other, and the ones we raised would purr to us” [Wired.com].

Defler got to make the trip to Colombia’s Caqueta region because violence in the area had lessened by 2008, and because he met Javier Garcia, who is from there. Garcia hopes to keep studying the monkeys for his master’s degree work—and to argue for new nature preserves to protect them and other endangered species.

It is estimated that less than 250 Caquetá titi monkeys exist — a healthy population should be in the thousands. The main reason for this small number is the degradation of the forests in the area, which have been felled for agricultural land. It is very dangerous, and sometimes impossible, for these animals to move to other patches of forest as they have to cross grassy savannah or barbed wire fences to reach them [Discovery News].

Related Content:
DISCOVER: Monkeys Show They Know What They Know
DISCOVER: On the Origin of (Amazonian) Species
80beats: 4 Messages a Pantomiming Orangutan Might Be Trying To Convey
80beats: Fossil May Reveal When Humanity’s Ancestors Split from Monkeys

Images: Javier Garcia

The Moon is a funny place. It’s literally the closest astronomical object to us in the entire Universe, but in some ways we know surprisingly little about it.

It’s literally covered in craters, but for a long time their origin was a mystery. Until the 1870s, most scientists thought they were volcanic in origin and not from impacts (it wasn’t until 1960 that Gene Shoemaker showed that some craters on Earth were impact events). That doesn’t mean that there are no volcanoes on the Moon, though. The evidence isn’t — har-de-har — rock solid, but this Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image is awfully tantalizing:

[Click to embiggen.]

Located in Lacus Mortis — the Lake of Death! — this interesting feature certainly looks like a volcanic cinder cone. Impact craters don’t generally have such gentle sloping on the inside wall, and such a large, shallow-sloped outside wall. The entire area around the feature is wrinkled and folded, making it look like it’s been heavily flooded with erupted material as well. The crater is about 400 meters (1/4 mile) across, and the whole image 900 or so meters (0.6 miles) in width.

We do know for a fact that there was extensive vulcanism on the Moon long ago. The maria — the huge dark regions on the surface of the Moon you can see with your unaided eye — are basaltic lava floods from billions of years ago. There are also rilles: long, sinuous gullies carved by lava flow. Also, in Apollo 17 they found orange glass (scroll down to the 145:28:39 time marker at that link), proof of volcanic fire fountains on the Moon — though more than 3 billion years ago.

So we know volcanoes are there, but is this mound one of them? Interestingly, the mound is near another that is also very cinder-cone-like (as shown in the picture here; you can scan the region at very high resolution on the LRO Camera page; the mounds are about 2/3 of the way down). Note the craters which have sharper rims; those are clearly impact events. In the second pit, also note the boulders lining the rim. You can see long shadows being cast by ones at the top. It’s very pretty.

There’s really only one way to know for sure if these are twin volcanoes: go there and find out! A rover might be able to do the trick, if it had the right instruments… but I still dream of a day, not too far off, when astronauts with picks and shovels will go there and examine that material with their own hands and eyes. We can learn more in a few minutes of being there than we have in all of history of looking at the Moon from 400,000 kilometers away.

LRO was 50 km (30 miles) above the surface of the Moon when it took that picture… 99.99% of the way there. But sometimes, that last 0.01% makes all the difference.

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

I love anniversaries, and particularly when they coincide with one another. Today, I have three four causes for celebration:

• Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that Sunday’s post on the microbiome was my 800th piece for Not Exactly Rocket Science (including all full-length posts, Pocket Science write-ups and opinion pieces, and excluding re-posts and the photo safaris).
• Today is my fourth bloggiversary – NERS was born in August 13th 2006
• Sometime in the last week, I got my 3 millionth page view (including those from the WordPress and Scienceblogs incarnations).
• [Updated] And apparently, I’ve written 10,000 tweets! Thanks to Chris Rowan for the tip.

Woo, and I might add, hoo.

So in a tradition I started when I wrote my 600th post, this is an open thread. Feel free to ask/talk about anything you want. I’ll do my best to reply, time pending.

Cheers, and thanks for reading,

Ed

“Opinions vary over whether female ejaculation exists or not. We investigated the hypothesis that female orgasm is not associated with ejaculation. Thirty-eight healthy women were studied. The study comprised of glans clitoris electrovibration with simultaneous recording of vaginal and uterine pressures as well as electromyography of corpus cavernous and ischio- and bulbo-cavernosus muscles. Glans clitoris electrovibration was continued until and throughout orgasm. Upon glans clitoris electrovibration, vaginal and uterine pressures as well as corpus cavernous electromyography diminished until a full erection occurred when the silent cavernosus muscles were activated. At orgasm, the electromyography of ischio-and bulbo-cavernosus muscles increased intermittently. The female orgasm was not associated with the appearance of fluid coming out of the vagina or urethra.”

Photo: flickr/Nathan Lanier

Related content:
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Ever wonder how much electricity your penis can take?
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: She might not be having what you think she’s having…
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: A woman’s history of vaginal orgasm is discernible from her walk.

WTF is NCBI ROFL? Read our FAQ!

Tattoos are a nerd’s best friend. The Loom’s science tattoo emporium is all the proof I need. But Frog Design’s idea for Dattoos takes things to the next level:

The concept of the Dattoo arose in response to current trends towards increasing connectivity and technology as self-expression. To realize a state of constant, seamless connectivity and computability required the convergence of technology and self. The body would need to literally become the interface. Computers and communication devices require physical space, surfaces, and energy. The idea of DNA tattoos (Dattoos) is to use the body itself as hardware and interaction platform, through the use of minimally-invasive, recyclable materials.

The picture reminds me of the Buzz Lightyear/ Turanga Leela style forearm computer. That seems like a pretty practical place to put a Dattoo. I have a few other ideas:

1. Put a Dattoo on the palm of your hand, for more interesting waving and “talk to the hand” gesturing.
2. On the bicep, for wearing your Facebook status/latest tweet on your sleeve.
3. Upside-down on your stomach, for the world’s most entertaining navel gazing.

Dattoos are a long, long way off — it’s currently just a concept design, not a technology plan — but I can imagine artists like Lady Gaga and Marina Abramovi? coming up with crazy ideas for installations and projects. Or, you know, it could be used to make people healthier, I guess. My daily subway commute would sure be even more colorful. Can someone make this happen, please?

Image via FrogDesign.com