There are a number of gliding mammals, including the Colugo or flying lemur, the flying mouse, and the Wrist-winged gliders which are a family of gliding possums (including the Squirrel Glider and the Sugar Glider) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... A number of animals have evolved aerial locomotion, either by powered flight or by gliding. ... Species Cynocephalus varigatus Cynocephalus volans Colugos are arboreal gliding mammals found in South-east Asia. ... Species Idiurus zenkeri Idiurus macrotis The flying mice, also known as the pygmy scaly-tails, pygmy scaly-tailed flying squirrels, or pygmy anomalures are not mice, not squirrels, and are not capable of true flight. ... Species See text. ... Superfamilies and Families Phalangeroidea Burramyidae Phalangeridae Petauroidea Pseudocheiridae Petauridae Tarsipedidae Acrobatidae A possum is any of about 64 small to medium-sized arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea and Sulawesi. ... Binomial name Petaurus norfolcensis (Kerr, 1792) The Squirrel Glider (Petaurus norfolcensis) is a gliding possum of the Marsupial family Petauridae. ... Binomial name Petaurus breviceps Waterhouse, 1839 Sugar Glider natural range: Red: Blue: Darkgreen: Yellow: Violet: Lightgreen: Black: The Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps), sometimes called the Flying Sugar, is a small gliding possum native to eastern and northern mainland Australia, New Guinea, and the Bismarck Archipelago, and introduced to Tasmania. ...
A new order of mammals has been named based on a recently discovered fossil of a squirrel-sized Mesozoic-era animal [image] that lived at least 130 million years ago and was capable of gliding flight.
Previously, the earliest record of flight in mammals was found in fossils of bats dating back to 51 million years ago, said lead study author, Jin Meng from the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
However, the mammal is not considered a direct ancestor of these or other flying mammals.
"This discovery rolls back the earliest record of gliding flight for mammals by at least 70 million years and demonstrates that mammals were diverse in their locomotor strategies and life styles," writes the research group in the study report.
It was most probably nocturnal, not only because small Mesozoic mammals are generally thought to be nocturnal, but also because glidingmammals are predominantly arboreal and nocturnal, the study says.
The earliest identified glidingmammal was a 30-million-year-old extinct rodent.
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