{"id":228388,"date":"2025-10-16T06:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T06:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/228388\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T06:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T06:25:09","slug":"professor-searching-remote-wilderness-for-squirrel-finds-completely-new-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/228388\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Searching Remote Wilderness For Squirrel Finds Completely New Species"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2018, Cal Poly Humboldt<\/a> biological sciences professor Silvia Pavan was on a research expedition in the Peruvian Andes, keeping her eyes peeled for a \u201cmysterious<\/a>\u201d squirrel species, when she stumbled on an animal she didn\u2019t recognize.<\/p>\n

The little mammal had round ears and reddish fur, with black circles around his eyes that resembled a mask. Pavan was confused \u2014 mouse opossums like this one don\u2019t usually live at such a high mountain altitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized immediately that this was something unusual,\u201d Pavan said in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"rarePedro Peloso<\/p>\n

Pavan and her team brought their findings back to the lab, where researchers spent years trying to deduce whether or not the animal she\u2019d seen was a new species.<\/p>\n

\u201cScientists had to be absolutely certain it hadn\u2019t already been documented, carefully comparing the specimen with others in museum collections \u2014 sometimes across different countries and continents \u2014 and running extensive lab tests, including DNA analysis,\u201d Cal Poly Humboldt wrote in the release.<\/p>\n

Recently, they confirmed what Pavan always suspected \u2014 the animal she\u2019d seen was completely new to science.<\/p>\n

\"rarePedro Peloso<\/p>\n

Pavan and her team gave the animal an official name, Marmosa chachapoya, after the Chachapoyas, an indigenous culture who lived in the Andes prior to the 18th century.<\/p>\n

During the 2018 expedition, Pavan saw a few other notable species, including a \u201csemi-aquatic rodent,\u201d which scientists are still working to identify.<\/p>\n

Pavan hopes that these discoveries encourage conversation and research efforts in the region. That way, scientists can continue searching for amazing animals, and the animals can continue to thrive.<\/p>\n

\"Scientists<\/a>Scientists Find Rare ‘Barbie-Pink’ Animal Living In Deep Underwater CanyonWhy do you think they\u2019re pink?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2018, Cal Poly Humboldt biological sciences professor Silvia Pavan was on a research expedition in the Peruvian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[3192,616,192,3191,127712,79,615,613,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-228388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-encounters","9":"tag-daily-dodo","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-maeve-dunigan","12":"tag-rare-animals","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-standard","15":"tag-the-dodo","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}