OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) — Mammal experts have named a new species of possum after the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh professor who discovered it.
The Oshkosh Northwestern reported Thursday that UW-Oshkosh biology professor Greg Adler was working on research near the Panama Canal in 2001 when he found a mouse possum with a longer tail than usual and a brownish rather than the common salmon-colored belly.
He sent the animal to the American Museum of Natural History and forgot about it until this year, when he received an email from museum curator Robert Voss. He said the possum was a new species and it had been named Marmosa adleri, Latin for "Adler's mouse opossum."
The museum published the discovery on Dec. 8. Adler says he's honored.
