The Monito del Monte
The Monito del Monte (Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 for "little mountain monkey", Dromiciops gliroides, is a diminutive marsupial native only to southwestern South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

 (Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 and Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

). It is the only extant species in the ancient order Microbiotheria

Microbiotheria

The Monito del Monte is the only extant member of its family and the only surviving member of an ancient order, the Microbiotheria. The oldest microbiothere currently recognised is Khasia cordillerensis, based on fossil teeth from Early Palaeocene deposits at Tiupampa, Bolivia...

, and the sole New World representative of the superorder Australidelphia

Australidelphia

Australidelphia is the superorder that contains roughly three-quarters of all marsupials, including all those native to Australasia and a single species from South America...

 (all other New World marsupials are members of Ameridelphia

Ameridelphia

Ameridelphia is traditionally a superorder that includes all marsupials living in the Americas except for the Monito del Monte...

). It is sometimes called the colocolo, but not often because there is also a wild cat

Colocolo

Colocolo may refer to:*Colocolo , a Mapuche tribal chief.*Colo Colo creature of the Mapuche mythology.*Colocolo , a South American cat native to Chile.*Colo-Colo, a Chilean football team....

 which shares the name.