Evolution Evolution
Reconstruction of the extinct European Miopetauristic Flying Squirrel, by Spanish Biologist Oscar Sanisidro
The discovery, made in a sink in Tennessee, may be the oldest mypetaulting fossil ever found in North America.
Researchers discovered evidence that giant flying squirrelsas large as the current domestic cats, hovered in North America forests about 5 million years ago. The discovery arises after identifying an unusual fossil found in an old sink in Tennessee.
The fossil, identified as belonging to the Mypetaurist extinct genreit was part of a set of remains of animals discovered for 25 years at the Gray Fossil Site in eastern Tennessee. Although the fossils of mypetauristic are usually in Asia, there are two specimens previously recorded in Florida.
The new, published in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution, suggests that this Tennessee specimen may be the oldest mypetaugorian fossil ever found in North America.
“It’s amazing to imagine these giant flying squirrels About rhinos and mastodons that lived in Tennessee forests 5 million years ago, ”said Joshua Samuels, study co -author and associate professor of Geosciences at East Tennessee State University.
Scientists believe that the mypetaulturist migrated to North America During the beginning of the pliocene (5.3 to 2.6 million years ago), when a land bridge connected the continent to Asia. Tennessee’s old landscape provided hot forests similar to those of Asia, creating a hospitable environment for the species.
The identification of the myopetaurist specimen was based on a single tooth found on the Gray Fossil Site, which also produced fossils from other unusual wildlife of the time. The sink of the site was formed about 5 million years ago, eventually fill with water and create a lake surrounded by forest. Over time, sediments and mud preserved the remains of animals that died at the scene, he explains.
O Miopendistista Weighed about 1.5 kilogramsmuch more than the Northern Flying Squirils (Glaucomys Sabrinus) of the current Tennessee, which weigh only 71 grams. The study suggests that mypetaupists prospered until the beginning of the Pleistocene ice age, about 2.6 million years ago, when the cooling of temperatures forced them to take refuge in warmer climates, such as Florida.
“As the weather was cooling, the pleistocene ice age led to the isolation of these giant flying squirrels in warmer refuges Like Florida, which eventually contributed to its extinction, ”says Montserrat Grade-Camats, researcher at the Catalan Institute of Paleontology in Spain.
