JULY 18,
2019
Described
in 1981, the genus Biswamoyopterus is regarded as the most mysterious
and rarest amongst all flying squirrels. It comprises two large (1.4-1.8 kg)
species endemic to southern Asia: the Namdapha flying squirrel (India) and the
Laotian giant flying squirrel (Lao PDR). Each is only known from a single
specimen discovered in 1981 and 2013, respectively.
Recently,
in 2018, a specimen identifiable as Biswamoyopteruswas unexpectedly found
in the collections of the Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ), Chinese Academy
of Sciences by in-house expert Quan Li. It had been collected from Mount
Gaoligong in Yunnan Province, Southwest China.
Initially,
the individual was considered to belong to the "missing" Namdapha
flying squirrel: a species considered
as critically endangered due to hunting and habitat loss. The latter had not
ever been recorded since its original description in 1981 and was already
listed as one of the top 25 "most wanted" species in the world by the
Global Wildlife Conservation.
However,
a closer look at the specimen from KIZ made it clear that the squirrel
exhibited a colouration, as well as skull and teeth anatomy, distinct from any
of the previously known species in the genus.
Subsequently,
joined by his colleagues from China (Xuelong Jiang, Xueyou Li, Fei Li, Ming
Jiang, Wei Zhao and Wenyu Song) and Stephen Jackson from Australia, the team of
Quan Li conducted a new field survey. Thus, they successfully obtained another
specimen and, additionally, recorded observations of two other flying squirrels. As a
result, they included a third member to the enigmatic genus: Biswamoyopterus
gaoligongensis, also referred to as the Mount Gaoligong flying squirrel.
This new to science species was described in a paper published in the
open-access journal ZooKeys.
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