''Lutreolina'' is a genus of

opossum Opossums () are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia () endemic to the Americas. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 126 species in 18 genera. Opossums originated in South America and entered North A ...

found in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. Both extant species in this genus are known as lutrine opossums. They have an

otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among ...

-like body plan and occasionally

semiaquatic In biology, being semi-aquatic refers to various macroorganisms that live regularly in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. When referring to animals, the term describes those that actively spend part of their daily time in water (in ...

tendencies, hence the genus name ''Lutreolina'', which is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "otter-like". Formerly, only one species, the big lutrine opossum (previously known as just the lutrine opossum) was recognized, but a 2014 study described a second species, '' Lutreolina massoia'', on genetic and morphological grounds. There are also two fossil species recognized, '' Lutreolina biforata'' (formerly placed in '' Hyperdidelphys'') and '' Lutreolina materdei''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16335775 Marsupial genera Opossums Marsupials of South America Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas