Date: October 9, 2018
Source: eLife
The
oldest flying squirrel fossil ever found has unearthed new insight on the
origin and evolution of these airborne animals.
Writing
in the open-access journal eLife, researchers from the Institut Català de
Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP) in Barcelona, Spain, described the
11.6-million-year-old fossil, which was discovered in Can Mata landfill,
approximately 40 kilometers outside the city.
"Due
to the large size of the tail and thigh bones, we initially thought the remains
belonged to a primate," says first author Isaac Casanovas-Vilar,
researcher at the ICP. In fact, and much to the disappointment of
paleoprimatologists, further excavation revealed that it was a large rodent
skeleton with minuscule specialised wrist bones, identifying it
as Miopetaurista neogrivensis -- an extinct flying squirrel.
Combining
molecular and paleontological data to carry out evolutionary analyses of the
fossil, Casanovas-Vilar and the team demonstrated that flying squirrels evolved
from tree squirrels as far back as 31 to 25 million years ago, and possibly
even earlier.
In
addition, their results showed that Miopetaurista is closely related to an
existing group of giant flying squirrels called Petaurista. Their skeletons are
in fact so similar that the large species that currently inhabits the tropical
and subtropical forests of Asia could be considered living fossils.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!