Recently analyzed fossils eventually confirmed long-standing paleontological theories. A domesticated cat-sized flight glided across Beringland Bridge about 5 million years ago. Although no longer native to North America, today’s aerodynamic rodent ancestors may have made the most of the warm early Pliocene climate.
The new findings come from an international research team in collaboration between East Tennessee State University and the Spanish Institute Katatara de Pereontology, explained in a study published on February 21. Journal of Mammalian Evolution. Discovery of Myopetaulista Webbi The specimens from a gray fossil site in Washington County, Tennessee surprised paleontologists when they had previously understood the evolutionary journey of creatures.
“discovery Myopetaulista In North America, this genus was very unexpected because it is known only from Eurasia,” said Isaac Casanovas-bililar, a researcher at the Institute, and researcher at Paleontologia. said in a statement. “There have been some uncertain reports from Florida, but specimens from the grey fossil site provided new information.”
Modern South Appalachia was much warmer in the Pliocene era, seducing prehistoric mammal species to the east after crossing the Beringland Bridge. Because of its Eurasian origin, Myopetaulista The ultimate surge in Tennessee trees all the way to Florida was more closely linked to today’s flying squirrels in China, Japan and Indonesia than the squirrels in North America.
It’s roughly the size of a cat, Myopetaulista Webbi It weighed only about 3 pounds.
Myopetaulista The species had previously been recorded in the regions of China, France and Germany both in the Miocene (230,550,000 years ago) and in the Pliocene (55,500,000 years ago) epochs. But Tennessee discoveries and dates Myopetaulista Webbi Now it means that those flying squirrels were the last few of their kind.
“As the climate cooled over time, Pleistocene ice age led to the isolation of these giant flying squirrels in warm shelters like Florida, and ultimately contributed to their extinction.” “The Last Americans Myopetaulista It has lived for millions of years since the Eurasian species of this genus disappeared. That meant they were “living fossils.”
“It’s amazing to imagine these giant flying rialles gliding over the rhinoceros and mastodons that lived in Tennessee forests five million years ago,” said Joshua Samuels, a co-author of the study.
