Massoia's lutrine opossum (''Lutreolina massoia'') is a species of opossum native to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

Taxonomy

It was formerly considered a disjunct population of the lutrine opossum (''L. crassicaudata''), but a 2014 study determined it to be a distinct species and described it as such. It is possible that climatic changes in the past led to an expansion of vegetation in the Dry Chaco, allowing the ancestral ''Lutreolina'' to cross it, with the later aridification of the Chaco isolating both species and leading to their divergence. This species was named after Argentine zoologist Elio Massoia, who made significant contributions to the knowledge of South American mammal diversity, and was among the first researchers to notice the distinctiveness of the ''Lutreolina'' populations of the

Yungas The Yungas ( Aymara ''yunka'' warm or temperate Andes or earth, Quechua ''yunka'' warm area on the slopes of the Andes) is a bioregion of a narrow band of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains from Peru and Bolivia, and extends int ...

Distribution

It ranges from south-central Bolivia south to northern

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, where it is restricted to the

region just east of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

. It has a different habitat from ''L. crassicaudata'', being found primarily in lowland

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

grasslands. It seems to primarily use areas with dense ground cover and aquatic environments.

Description

''L. massoia'' is smaller in size than ''L. crassicaudata'', and differs in the size and shape of the skull, as well as in the dentition.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16335777 Opossums Marsupials of South America Mammals of Argentina Mammals of Bolivia Mammals described in 2014 Southern Andean Yungas