Marc van Roosmalen

Marc van Roosmalen (born 23 June 1947) is a Dutch-Brazilian primatologist. He was elected as one of the "Heroes for the Planet" by Time magazine in 2000. His research has led to the identification of several new monkey species, as well as other mammals and plants, although some of these identifications are challenged. He is also an activist in the protection of the Brazilian rainforest. Van Roosmalen was awarded the honour of officer in the Order of the Golden Ark by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in 1997.

Career Van Roosmalen studied biology at the University of Amsterdam and did four years of doctoral fieldwork beginning in 1976 studying the red-faced spider monkey in Suriname. He later did two more years of work in French Guiana, following which he published the book Fruits of the Guianan Flora. In 1986 he was hired by the INPA (Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian Research, where he initially thrived. During this period, he launched a non-governmental organization focused on creating wilderness preserves in the deep Amazon. He became a naturalized Brazilian citizen in 1997. Marc considers Alfred Russel Wallace his icon and is an advocate of Wallace's "river barrier" hypothesis that the major rivers of the Amazon basin serve as barriers that create separate genetically distinct evolutionary regions.

In 2007, he was arrested by the Brazilian government for illegally keeping orphaned monkeys in a monkey refuge at his house in Manaus and for misappropriation of Brazilian public funds. After three months in 'hell on earth', he was set free on appeal.

Van Roosmalen told a Wired news reporter that he has a video of two ex-policemen knocking on his door immediately after tucking revolvers into their pants. Believing that he would be killed if he stayed, he and his partner Vivian Garcia went on the run to the Caribbean Island of Margarita with no plans to return to their home in Manaus as of August 2007.

Van Roosmalen's dwarf porcupine and Van Roosmalen's dwarf marmoset are discovered by and named after him. He named the Prince Bernhard's titi after the late Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, co-founder and former president of the WWF.