New species of carnivore discovered: First find of its kind in more than three decades
Thursday, August 15, 2013 - 10:00
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Observed in the wild, tucked away in museum collections, and even exhibited in zoos around the world—there is one mysterious creature that has been a victim of mistaken identity for more than 100 years. A team of Smithsonian scientists, however, uncovered overlooked museum specimens of this remarkable animal, which took them on a journey from museum cabinets in Chicago to cloud forests in South America to genetics labs in Washington, D.C. The result: the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina)—the first carnivore species to be discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years. The team's discovery is published in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal ZooKeys.