Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The False Potto
(Pseudopotto martini) is a strepsirrhine primate from the Lorisidae
family, very similar in anatomy and appearance to the Potto
(Perodicticus potto). The classification of the False Potto into its own
genus (Pseudopotto) and species was proposed in 1996 by Jeffrey Schwartz
of the American Museum of Natural History. Schwartz had been studying
skeletons labelled Perodicticus potto at the University of Zurich when
he realised that two of them had characteristics different from the
Potto skeletons. They lacked the Potto's distinctive spiny vertebrae and
had longer premolars, shorter third molars and a slightly longer tail.
The skeletons were also much smaller than those of most Pottos, but had
been collected in a region where the largest Potto individuals are
found. Schwartz named the species martini in honour of Robert Martin, a
leader in prosimian study who taught at the University of Zurich.
