Volaticotherium antiquum

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Volaticotherium antiquum
Fossil range: Late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous

Life restoration of Volaticotherium antiquum

Fossil

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Volaticotheria Meng et al., 2006
Family:	Volaticotheriidae
Genus:	Volaticotherium
Species:	V. antiquum

Binomial name

Volaticotherium antiquum
Meng et al., 2006

Volaticotherium antiquum was an ancient gliding mammal not closely related to any other mammalian group currently known. It had a gliding membrane similar to a modern-day flying squirrel. The teeth of Volaticotherium were highly specialized for eating insects, and its limbs were adapted to living in trees. The gliding membrane (patagium) was insulated by a thick covering of fur, and was supported by the limbs as well as the tail. The discovery of Volaticotherium provided the earliest-known record of a gliding mammal (70 million years older than the next oldest example),^[1] and provided further evidence of mammalian diversity during the Mesozoic Era.

Volaticotherium fossils were recovered from the Daohugou Beds of Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia, China. The age of the Daohugou Beds is currently uncertain and the subject of debate — they appear to be either preceding or around the Late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous boundary (c. 140-120 mya).^[2] The description was published in an issue of the journal Nature.^[3]

[edit] References

^ Smithsonian Magazine (2007). Wild Things: Life As We Know It. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-02-22.
^ Wang, X., Zhou, Z., He, H., Jin, F., Wang, Y., Zhang, J., Wang, Y., Xu, X. & Zhang, F. (2005). "Stratigraphy and age of the Daohugou Bed in Ningcheng, Inner Mongolia." Chinese Science Bulletin, 50(20): 2369-2376.
^ Meng, J., Hu, Y., Wang, Y., Wang, X., Li, C. (Dec 2006). "A Mesozoic gliding mammal from northeastern China". Nature 444 (7121): 889–893. doi:10.1038/nature05234.