A SOLUTION TO THE BORNEAN MYSTERY MAMMAL?

Thirteen months ago, excited headlines heralded the discovery of a "new mammal species" whose image, both coming and going, had been captured by a camera trap set up by WWF biologists in central Borneo. From my own sampling of the general media, the consensus seemed to be that the photographs revealed either a hitherto undescribed species of primate or viverrid. I've had my own thoughts about the pictures, but haven't felt confident enough in my knowledge of mammalian anatomy to post them. Darren Naish has posted a fine synopsis of the conversation up till now on Tetrapod Zoology.

A new paper by a team of mammalogists who've forgotten far more about Bornean fauna and mammal morphology than I'll ever know believe that the WWF camera shutter was actually tripped by a member of a family most of us never considered. Their suggestion is clever and interesting, but despite my lack of expertise, or maybe because of it, I still have a bit of trouble swallowing it completely. I'll wait for Darren to post his conclusions before spoiling the surprise and weighing in myself.