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Topic: Gliding mammals

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	Mammals Might Have Soared Before Birds \| LiveScience
		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.
	www.livescience.com /animals/061213_new_mammal.html (653 words)

	Squirrel-like mammal flies before birds: Scientists
		"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 gliding mammals are predominantly arboreal and nocturnal, the study says.
		The earliest identified gliding mammal was a 30-million-year-old extinct rodent.
	www2.chinadaily.com.cn /photo/2006-12/15/content_759416.htm (407 words)

	Flying and gliding animals - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Gliding, in particular, has evolved among rainforest animals, especially in the rainforests of Asia (most especially Borneo) where the trees are tall and quite widely spaced.
		Gliding animals have a lower aspect ratio (wing length/wing breadth) than flyers.
		Possible candidates are the flying squirrels which are known to glide up to 200 m and flying fish has been observed to glide for hundreds of meters on the drafts on the edge of waves with only their initial leap from the water to provide height.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals (3005 words)

	MAMMALS
		Mammals are the class of vertebrate animals characterized by the presence of mammary glands, which in females produce milk for the nourishment of young; the presence of hair or fur; and endothermic or "warm-blooded" bodies.
		Mammals have three bones in each ear and one (the dentary) on each side of the lower jaw; all other vertebrates with ears have one bone (the stapes) in the ear and at least three on each side of the jaw.
		Mammals belong among the amniotes, and in particular to a group called the synapsids, distinguished by the shape of their skulls, in particular the presence of a single hole on each side where jaw muscles attach, called temporal fenestra.
	www.solarnavigator.net /animal_kingdom/mammals.htm (1227 words)

	Colugo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Of all the gliding mammals, the colugos have the most extensive adaptation to flight.
		However although other Paleogene mammals have been interpreted as related to Dermopterans, the evidence for this is uncertain and many of them are no longer interpreted as being gliding mammals.
		Although they are placental mammals, colugos are almost marsupial-like in their breeding habits.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Colugo (775 words)

	Gliding Summary
		Gliding mammals, such as flying squirrels, have a fold of skin on each side of their bodies that extend from the front leg or front wrist back along the side of the body to the hind leg or the ankle.
		The words gliding and soaring are also used to describe the ways birds capable of flight remain aloft without flapping their wings; the mechanics of this process are explained in the article on bird flight, while this article focuses on aircraft.
		Two minimalistic variations of the sport are hang gliding, where instead of a fully-fledged plane with full control surfaces and an enclosed cockpit the craft used is basically a fabric flying wing, and paragliding, where a sophisticated kind of parachute is flown.
	www.bookrags.com /Gliding (4444 words)

	Reference.com/Encyclopedia/Mammal
		Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals characterized by the production of milk in females for the nourishment of young, from mammary glands present on most species and specialized skin glands in monotremes that seep or ooze milk.
		Mammals also have a double occipital condyle; they have two knobs at the base of the skull which fit into the topmost neck vertebra, and other vertebrates have a single occipital condyle.
		Mammals belong to a group of amniotes called the synapsids that have a single hole (temporal fenestra) low on each side of the skull on each side where jaw muscles attach.
	www.reference.com /browse/wiki/Mammal (4079 words)

	Mammals may have flown before birds - Boston.com
		So it's clearly older than the 51 million-year-old bat that used to be the oldest evidence of flying or gliding in a mammal.
		They believe it was nocturnal, like other mammals of the time were thought to be, and like gliding mammals are today.
		Gliding probably increased the foraging range of the creature and maybe helped it escape predators in the trees, he said.
	www.boston.com /news/science/articles/2006/12/13/mammals_may_have_flown_before_birds (578 words)

	Colugo (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Colugos are aboreal gliding mammals found in South-east Asia.
		Although they are the most capable of all mammal gliders, they cannot actually fly, and they are not lemurs.
		Colugos are fairly large for a tree-dwelling mammal: at about 35 to 40 cm in length and 1 or 2 kilograms in weight, they are comparable to a medium-sized possum or a very large squirrel.
	bopedia.com /en/wikipedia/c/co/colugo.html (489 words)

	Mammals Introduction
		Mammals are a diverse group that inhabits a great diversity of habitats: from temperatures well over 100 degrees to well below minus 30 degrees, from very dry deserts to life in a pond or stream.
		The mammal heart is four-chambered and capable of rapidly circulating a high volume of blood.
		Mammal skeletons are variable, and especially adapted to the various modes of locomotion.
	imnh.isu.edu /digitalatlas/bio/mammal/main/mamintro.htm (1596 words)

	Gliding ants - frequently asked questions
		When a gliding ant falls, jumps or is brushed off of a tree branch (e.g., by a passing monkey), it drops straight down for a few meters, then makes a rapid adjustment in orientation such that its abdomen is pointed toward the tree trunk.
		If gliding preceded the evolution of winged flight in insects, the evolutionary link between the behaviors will be associated with a primitive taxon (e.g., silverfish).
		Day-active ants foraging in a lowland rain forest canopy are frequently exposed to visual predators (lizards, birds, anteaters) and disturbance from passing mammals (e.g., monkeys) in tree crowns.
	www.canopyants.com /glide_faq.html (1087 words)

	News in Science - Ancient 'squirrel' glided with birds - 14/12/2006
		Gliding squirrel-like mammals that lived with the dinosaurs at least 130 million years ago may have conquered the skies around the same time as birds, or even earlier, scientists say.
		The fossil shows the newly discovered mammal weighed 450 grams, was an agile flyer and had pointed, sharp teeth that it used to eat insects.
		The scientists say the fossil record for gliding mammals is so scant because the small creatures are poorly preserved, particularly their gliding structure.
	www.abc.net.au /science/news/stories/2006/1811398.htm (472 words)

	Feathertail Glider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The Feathertail Glider (Acrobates pygmaeus), also known as the Pygmy Gliding Possum, is the world's smallest gliding mammal, and is named for its long feather-shaped tail.
		Like other gliding mammals, the Feathertail Glider has a skin membrane between the fore and hind legs; thicker than that of the other marsupials like the Sugar Glider, but smaller in proportion, extending only between the elbows and knees.
		The most obvious feature of the Feathertail Glider, however, is the tail that gives it its name: it is about the same length as the combined head/body, quite thin, moderately prehensile, and almost hairless except for the two very obvious rows of long, stiff hairs on either side.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Feathertail_glider (447 words)

	'Ancient flying beast' took wing in Inner Mongolia. - Automatically-Generated Digest. Multi-Source, Multi-Document ... (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Palaeontologists discovered the mammal's fossil at a site in inner Mongolia where the rock is about 70 million years older that the rock containing the earliest previously known fossils of gliding mammals.
		A mammal that was a cross between a bat and a squirrel had mastered gliding while the ancestors of modern birds were still learning to fly.
		Gliding flight has evolved independently many times in vertebrates, but birds and bats are the only members of the group today that are able to fly using flapping wings controlled by powerful muscles.
	newsfeedresearcher.com /data/articles_t50/idt2006.12.14.02.14.49.html (2747 words)

	Untitled Document (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Gliding is used to move from tree to tree without wasting energy or risking danger by going to the ground.
		Gliding mammals eat mostly leaves, which are lower in nutrients than fruits, nectar or insects.
		Their gliding skin is covered with visible fur and is not skin-like as in bats.
	www.szgdocent.org /resource/ff/f-rain1a.htm (1644 words)

	Nebraska Game and Parks Commission - Wildlife Species Guide - Flying Squirrel
		The southern flying squirrel is easily distinguished from other Nebraska tree squirrels by its smaller size and by its gliding membrane, or patagium, a fold of skin that extends from the wrist of the front leg to the ankle of the hind leg.
		Other gliding mammals from various parts of the world also tend to be nocturnal, and a possible explanation for this association is that gliding in daylight might attract the attention of hawks or other diurnal (daytime) predators.
		Glides begin after the squirrel climbs to a lofty treetop perch and assesses the landing site by moving its head up and down and from side to side, apparently triangulating to judge distance.
	www.ngpc.state.ne.us /wildlife/flysqu.asp (2222 words)

	Ladywildlife's How Mammals Move Page
		Mammals are among the animal worlds most versatile movers, with species adapted to a full range of motion, from swimming through water to gliding or flying through the air.
		A few mammals, such as the horse, can sustain swift movement like galloping when only one foot is on the ground at any time and when all feet are in midair at given moments.
		These mammals use their hind legs to propel themselves into a leap, and they grasp vegetation with their forelimbs as they land on their hind legs.
	ladywildlife.com /animal/howmammalsmove.html (1037 words)

	Mammals
		Mammals are warm-blooded animals that bear their young alive and nurse them for a period of time.
		Mammal behavior is more complex and in most cases less purely reflexive, or instinctual than is true with other types of animals.
		Mammals probably evolved as small, insect eaters about the same time as did the dinosaurs.
	www.nhest.org /penquis/penquismammals.html (2224 words)

	scary squirrel world
		Mammals took to the skies as long ago as the first birds, perhaps even earlier, according to a study of a squirrel-like creature from inner Mongolia.
		The discovery of the fossil of the "gliding beast" raises the question about why mammals never got to fly as well as birds, though they were swooping around for 70 million years longer than scientists had thought.
		The fossil of the gliding mammal, discovered in eastern Mongolia, preserves the animal's skeleton, as well as an impression of most of a large fold of skin membrane that stretched between the animal's fore and hind limbs.
	www.scarysquirrel.org /science/soar (969 words)

	[No title]
		The distinctive patagia, folds of skin between the wrist and ankle, are fully haried and supported by slender cartilages extending from the wrist bones; these plus the broad tail create a large gliding surface and are the basis for the squirrels' characteristic aerial locomotion (41).
		Adults are dorsally gray with a brownish, tan, or reddish wash and grayish white or buffy white ventrally.
		Such habitats seem well suited to the species' gliding form of locomotion, while the abundance of natural cavities in old hardwoods and their relative resistance to wind-throw (compared to many conifers) may account for the northern flying squirrel's occupation of the deciduous and mixed woodland just below the spruce-fir zone.
	fwie.fw.vt.edu /WWW/esis/lists/e055002.htm (3739 words)

	FOXNews.com - Mammals May Have Flown Before Birds
		Then they spread their limbs and glided away _ the first known mammals to take to the air, a new report says.
		They believe it was nocturnal, like other mammals of the time were thought to be, and like gliding mammals are today.
		Gliding probably increased the foraging range of the creature and maybe helped it escape predators in the trees, he said.
	www.foxnews.com /printer_friendly_wires/2006Dec13/0,4675,GlidingMammal,00.html (550 words)

	American Museum of Natural History
		The fossil of the gliding mammal, discovered in eastern Mongolia, preserves the animal's skeleton, as well as an impression of most of a large fold of skin membrane that stretched between the animal's fore and hind limbs, the direct evidence that the animal was adapted for gliding flight.
		The fossil also preserves impressions of the fur that was found on the gliding membrane and on other parts of the body, one of the earliest records of the skin covering that is typical of mammals.
		Although the new gliding mammal is comparable in size and shape to flying squirrels (which are members of Rodentia, an order of placental mammals), V.
	www.amnh.org /science/papers/gliding_mammal.php (687 words)

	Mammals flies before birds
		So it's clearly older than the 51 million-year-old bat that used to be the oldest evidence of flying or gliding in a mammal.
		They believe it was nocturnal, like other mammals of the time were thought to be, and like gliding mammals are today.
		Gliding probably increased the foraging range of the creature and maybe helped it escape predators in the trees, he said.
	www.chinadaily.com.cn /world/2006-12/14/content_758682.htm (566 words)

	Paleocene mammals of the world
		Yet the importance and diversity of primate-like mammals in the Paleocene faunas of Europe and North America is remarkable.
		Mammals of such small body weight are typically insectivorous, and in fact the sharp teeth of Micromomys confirm that this was a committed insect hunter.
		Colugos have a gliding membrane that runs from behind their ears to the tip of their tail and that allows them to glide over large distances.
	www.paleocene-mammals.de /primates.htm (3850 words)

	Mammals might have soared before birds - LiveScience- msnbc.com
		Mammals might have taken to the sky before birds, scientists announced Wednesday.
		A new order of mammals has been named based on a recently discovered fossil of a squirrel-sized Mesozoic-era animal that lived at least 130 million years ago and was capable of gliding flight.
		This fossil, found in Inner Mongolia, China, puts the first record of gliding flight for mammals at least 70 million years earlier than had been known, the researchers write in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
	www.msnbc.msn.com /id/16188914 (508 words)

	Kristin Bishop
		Understanding the evolution of powered flight in bats from an arboreal gliding ancestor is a particular challenge because gliding and powered flight appear to have very different morphological adaptations associated with them, suggesting that they have disparate optimization criteria.
		Before we can meaningfully address whether a gliding to flapping transition is mechanically plausible in the bat lineage, it is necessary to better understand the mechanics of gliding in living mammalian gliders.
		Gliding has evolved separately in at least six living mammal groups: the Dermopterans, or flying lemurs; 2 groups of rodents, the Anomalurids, or scaly tailed flying squirrels, and within the Sciuridae, the squirrel family; and 3 marsupial lineages, the Acrobatids, and two possum genera, Petaurus and Petauroides.
	www.brown.edu /Departments/EEB/EML/people/kristin.htm (453 words)

	Marsupial Mammals
		Marsupials are the group of mammals commonly thought of as pouched mammals (like the wallaby and kangaroo at left).
		There are several cases of convergent evolution between marsupials and placental mammals, in which the two animals have evolved to fill the same ecological niche in different parts of the world.
		There are burrowing forms, grazing forms, gliding forms, and even long-snouted ant-eating forms which have evolved independently in the two groups.
	www.ucmp.berkeley.edu /mammal/marsupial/marsupial.html (424 words)

	Feathertail Glider (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Feathertail Glider - Mammals of Lamington National Park: The feathertail glider is the world's smallest gliding animal.
		The Feathertail Glider is the smallest gliding mammal in the world, having an average weight of just 12 g.
		A high proportion of Australia's birds and mammals are dependent on hollows in trees for nesting and shelter.
	www.specieslist.com /endangered/common_name/F/Feathertail_Glider.shtml (1632 words)

	A Squirrel's Glide to a Long Life - squirrels flying the night away - Brief Article Natural History - Find Articles
		For most other squirrels in the wild, this would be a veritable crowd, but flying squirrels break nearly all the rules with their gliding locomotion, their strong dietary preference for underground truffles, and their unusual longevity.
		In fact, most of the world's gliding mammals appear to outlive their earthbound counterparts by a significant margin.
		For flying squirrels in particular, the combination of gliding, nocturnal habits, and tree-cavity nesting may confer significant advantages by reducing their vulnerability to predation.
	www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_m1134/is_8_110/ai_79051517 (1092 words)

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