A sneaky new species: scientists discover a new mammal in South America.

• Position: NEWS SHORTS

A furry little animal has been hiding right under our noses for decades. Specimens of the animal, called the olinguito (oh-lihn-GEE-toh), are found in many museums. One even lived at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. But experts had always mistaken it for one of its relatives, the olingo. Scientists recently identified the olinguito as its own species.

Why the confusion? Olingos and olinguitos look similar and belong to the same animal family. Olinguitos, however, are smaller, with shorter tails and darker, bushier fur.

Kristofer Helgen recently set the record straight. He works at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He identified the olinguito as a new species after studying skeletons and fur from the animals.

Many of those specimens had been collected in mountaintop forests in Ecuador. Helgen led a team to the South American country to see what they could find. The scientists spotted olinguitos leaping from tree to tree on the very first night.

"It shows us how much more we have to learn about the natural world," Helgen says.

Word to Know

specimens (SPESS-uh-muhnz) noun, plural, samples or examples used to represent a whole group

Common Core Lesson: Proofreading (L.4.1, L.4.2)

Read the article as a class for general understanding. Then study it for specific grammar and punctuation conventions. Depending on the needs of your students, you might focus on any of the following:

* capitalization of the first word of each sentence and proper...