A new species of Olingo from the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador.

Olingos, Bassaricyon, are small members of the Racoon family, Procyonidae, found in Central and South America. They are not well understood, as they live in the canopy of dense forests where they are not easily observed, and are easily mistaken for the related Kinkajou, Potos flavus.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 15 August 2013, a team of scientists led by Kristofer Helgen of the Division of Mammals at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC describe a new species of Olingo from the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador.

The new species is named Bassaricyon neblina, which means ‘fog’ or ‘mist’ in Spanish, a reference to the cloud forests where it lives; Helgen et al. also suggest the common name Olinguito, meaning ‘Little Olingo’. The species was discovered during a genetic study intended to determine the relationships between the four previously described species of Olingo and other members of the Racoon Family, using DNA from museum specimens.

Surprisingly, despite all the specimens referred to the new species having previously been assigned to other species, the new species emerged as a distinct lineage, which was the sister group to all the other species (i.e. all the other species were more closely related to one another than to the new species). More surprisingly still, all the specimens found to belong to the new species were found to have been collected in cloud forests at altitudes of 1500-2750 m, while all the other specimens were from below 2000 m, suggesting a clear difference in habitat preference. They were also smaller and more slender than members of other species, with darker coats.

The Olinguito, Bassaricyon neblina, in life, in the wild. Taken at Tandayapa BirdLodge, Ecuador. MarkGurney in Helgen et al. (2013).

The Olinguito is found in cloud forests between 1500 m and 2750 m in montane cloud forests on the slopes of the Western and Central Andes in Colombia and Western Andes in Ecuador.

Distribution map for Bassaricyon neblina. Helgen et al. (2013).

See also…

Signs of scavenging on a Pliocene Argentinean Glyptodont.

Glyptondonts were large, heavily armored mammals related to Armadillos that evolved first appeared in South America in the Miocene, spread to North America in the Pliocene and became extinct at about the same time...

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Signs of scavenging on a Pliocene Argentinean Glyptodont.

Glyptondonts were large, heavily armored mammals related to Armadillos that evolved first appeared in South America in the Miocene, spread to North America in the Pliocene and became extinct at about the same time as the earliest humans entered the Americas (this is almost certainly not a coincidence). The largest members of the group are thought to have weighed over a tonne and exceeded 3 m in length.

In a paper published in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica on 23 May 2013, a team of scientists led by Martín de los Reyes of the Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo de La Plata describe a Glyptodont specimen from the late Pliocene of the Pampean region of Argentina. This is the first Glyptodont showing signs of predation from South America (several are known from North America, mostly associated with archaeological, i.e. human, sites), and is from an early stage in the Great American Interchange, when many of the large Marsupial predators that had dominated earlier South American faunas had disappeared, but before the arrival of Placental Carnivore groups such as Cats, Dogs and Bears that dominate modern faunas.

The Glyptodont specimen is referred to the species Eosclerocalyptus lineatus. It is buried on its side in fine-grained fluvial sediments, but with the hemimandible, ribs and vertebrae outside the dorsal carapace, suggesting disturbance of the corpse by a predator or scavenger.

One of the extracted bones, a vertebrae has a distinct bite-mark, which de los Reyes et al. interpret as closely matching the dentition of Capalmalania altifrontis, a large member of the Racoon Family known to have been present in the area at the time when the Glyptodont lived. While Capalmalania altifrontis had a (muscle supporting) sagittal crest and short snout similar to that of a Bear or Hyena, it is unlikely to have been able to actively predate the much larger Glyptodont, leading de los Reyes et al. to suggest this was the result of scavenging activity rather than predation.

(1) Rib of Eosclerocalyptus lineatus showing a row of pits interpreted as a bite mark. (2) The dentition of the snout of Capalmalania altifrontis. De los Reyes et al. (2013).

Two different views of a combined image of the rostrum of Chapalmalania altifrontis 'biting' the posterior vertebrae of Eosclerocalyptus lineatus. Scale bar is 10 mm. De los Reyes et al. (2013).

Reconstruction of the scene of consumption. Luz Irrazábal in de los Reyes et al. (2013).

See also A Giant Camel from the mid-Pliocene of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic, New Caviomorph Rodents from the Early Oligocene Tinguiririca Fauna of the Andean Main Range of central Chile, Three new species of Tapir from the Early Eocene of Pakistan, What killed the Australian Thylacine and New species of Bat discovered in Vietnam.

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