| Pygmy flying squirrels Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Sciuridae |
| Tribe: | Pteromyini |
| Genus: | Petaurillus Thomas, 1908 |
| Type species | |
| Sciuropterus hosei | |
| Species | |
See text. | |
Pygmy flying squirrels (Petaurillus) are a genus of flying squirrels. [1]
Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, and flying squirrels. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa, and were introduced by humans to Australia. The earliest known fossilized squirrels date from the Eocene epoch, and among other living rodent families, the squirrels are most closely related to the mountain beaver and to the dormice.
Flying squirrels are a tribe of 50 species of squirrels in the family Sciuridae. Despite their name, they are not in fact capable of full flight in the same way as birds or bats, but they are able to glide from one tree to another with the aid of a patagium, a furred skin membrane that stretches from wrist to ankle. Their long tails also provide stability as they glide. Anatomically they are very similar to other squirrels with a number of adaptations to suit their lifestyle; their limb bones are longer and their hand bones, foot bones, and distal vertebrae are shorter. Flying squirrels are able to steer and exert control over their glide path with their limbs and tail.
Sciurinae is a subfamily of squirrels, uniting the flying squirrels with certain related tree squirrels. Older sources place the flying squirrels in a separate subfamily (Pteromyinae) and unite all remaining sciurids into the subfamily Sciurinae, but this has been strongly refuted by genetic studies.
The Anomaluridae are a family of rodents found in central Africa. They are known as anomalures or scaly-tailed squirrels. The six extant species are classified into two genera.
Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas was a British zoologist.
The flying mice, also known as the pygmy scaly-tails, pygmy scaly-tailed flying squirrels, or pygmy anomalures are not true mice, not true squirrels, and are not capable of true flight. These unusual rodents are essentially miniaturized versions of anomalures and are part of the same sub-Saharan African radiation of gliding mammal.
Charles Hose FRGS. FLS was a British colonial administrator, zoologist and ethnologist.
Hylopetes is a genus of flying squirrels. There are about 10 species.
The least pygmy squirrel, also known as the plain pygmy squirrel, is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. This plain olive-brown squirrel is endemic to forests, mostly below an altitude of 750 m (2,500 ft) but locally significantly higher, on the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo, Sumatra and Banggi. Together with the African pygmy squirrel, the least pygmy squirrel is the smallest squirrel in the world, having a total length of 10–14 cm (3.9–5.5 in) and a weight of 12–26 g (0.42–0.92 oz).
The sculptor squirrel or Bornean pygmy squirrel is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It was described by Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas in 1898. It is monotypic within the genus Glyphotes. It is endemic to northern Borneo in Sabah and Sarawak (Malaysia) and inhabits areas elevated at 285–1,800 metres (935–5,906 ft).
The African pygmy squirrel is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is monotypic within the genus Myosciurus. It is found in tropical rainforests in Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon. It is not considered threatened, but likely declines locally due to habitat loss. Together with the least pygmy squirrel of Asia, the African pygmy squirrel is the world's smallest squirrel measuring about 12–14 cm (4.7–5.5 in) in total length and just 15–18 g (0.53–0.63 oz) in weight, which is less than a typical house mouse.
The lesser pygmy flying squirrel is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is endemic to Borneo where it is known from the type specimen collected in 1901 in Sarawak (Malaysia) and another specimen collected in 2013 in Labanan Research Forest in East Kalimantan (Indonesia).
Petaurista is a genus of rodent in the family Sciuridae. They are large to very large flying squirrels found in forests and other wooded habitats in southern and eastern Asia.
