The Cellar - Aug 20th, 2017: Jurassic Gliders

The Cellar (http://cellar.org/index.php)

- Image of the Day (http://cellar.org/forumdisplay.php?f=10)

- - Aug 20th, 2017: Jurassic Gliders (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=32988)

Aug 20th, 2017: Jurassic Gliders

There’s all manner of critters that fly, birds, insects, but not mammals except the Bat.
But there are reptiles like snakes and frogs as well as mammals that glide. The oldest gliding mammals, discovered in China,
were gliding 160 million years ago, when T-Rex was a road hazard.

http://cellar.org/2017/gliders1.jpg

Quote:

Maiopatagium furculiferum and Vilevolodon diplomylos were both small, furry mammals well-adapted to an arboreal lifestyle. The fossils are so well preserved that paleontologists could observe a tell-tale fringe of skin and fur around their bodies, similar to the membranes used by sugar gliders and flying squirrels to float through the air. Lengthened fingers allowed them to hang like bats from tree branches, and their gliding membranes, called patagium, gave the ancient mammals the ability to move from tree to tree without ever touching the ground.

http://cellar.org/2017/gliders2.jpg

Quote:

Both fossils belong to a group of ancestral mammals that have long been extinct. As such, there is no line connecting them to gliding mammals today, indicating that mammalian aerial skills disappeared and re-emerged at least once throughout history

link

link

I'm not sure that an arboreal lifestyle is legal in PA.

They have family trees; but, that's just on paper ... :bolt:

I think I saw the lower guy in Central Park.

Pretty fly for a squrl guy.

There are Northern Flying Squirrels, and the smaller Southern Flying Squirrels, but none hold a candle to the Uncommon Flying Squirrel. :headshake

http://cellar.org/2017/aaflysquirrel.gif

I was referring to the critter in the top pic with his coat open.
And no, he hadn't just sold out of fake Rolexes.

Yes, but he/she doesn't hold a candle to the Flying Squirrel with a cape, nor do regular Flying Squirrels or Sugar Gliders.
What we have here is Super Squirrel. Don't mess with Super Squirrel. :unsure:

http://cellar.org/2017/The_Nuts.jpg