A brand new tiny deer.

Awww. Sci News has reported on the historic discovery of a new deer species in Peru. The short-legged dwarf deer Pudella carlae is the first deer discovered in the 21st century, and the first New World deer in more than 60 years … although now it seems like there may be more out there:

In a new study, the authors found that Pudu mephistophiles is in fact two distinct species.

“The typical form, Pudu mephistophiles, distributes north of the Huancabamba Depression from northernmost Peru to the north (Ecuador and Colombia), while the other distributes south of the Huancabamba Depression and is a Peruvian endemic,” they said.

“As no name is available for the last one, we describe and name it here: Pudella carlae.”

The researchers also found that Pudu puda, the type species of Pudu, is not sister to the two northern pudu species.

“We revalidate the genus Pudella to allocate the latter two species.”


You can read more of the species splitting here, in the Journal of Mammology.