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Paleontologists have actually discovered the 4.9-million-year-old (Early Pliocene) fossilized remains of the extinct flying squirrel Miopetaurista webbi in Tennessee, the United States. The incident of the genus Miopetaurista in eastern North America is perplexing, as it is remote from the recognized geographical variety of the genus and of that of its sibling types, the living PetauristaThe scientists assume that Miopetauristawhich was connected to warm forested environments, distributed into North America by means of the Bering Land Bridge throughout the warm stages of the Early Pliocene.
Life look of the fossil flying squirrel Miopetaurista neogrivensis revealing the animal all set to arrive on a tree branch. Image credit: Oscar Sanisidro/ ICP.
Miopetaurista webbi skyrocketed through the skies over what is now Southern Appalachia, moving above rhinos, mastodons and red pandas.
The brand-new product from this types was found at the Gray Fossil Site in Tennessee.
“Finding Miopetaurista in North America was rather unforeseen as this genus is just understood from Eurasia,” stated Dr. Isaac Casanovas-Vilar, a paleontologist with the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
“There had actually been some unsure reports from Florida, however the brand-new specimen of the Gray Fossil Site supplied brand-new details and assisted to validate that in some way these huge flying squirrels crossed the Bering Land Bridge together with other mammals about 5 million years back.”
According to the paleontologists, Miopetaurista webbi is most likely carefully associated to Miopetaurista thalerithe just recognized Pliocene Eurasian types.
“Appalachians today may be lured to think about these ancient animals as carefully associated to the squirrels they frequently see,” the scientists stated.
“But their closest loved ones are the huge flying squirrels in Japan, China and Indonesia.”
“These huge flying squirrels had a light-weight construct, weighing around 3 pounds– and were rather nimble in the treetops.”
“When they showed up in what is now Tennessee, the world was much warmer than it is now.”
“That warmer environment enabled the squirrel’s forefathers to cross into North America, most likely sliding through thick, damp forests like those maintained in the fossil record at the Gray website countless years earlier.”
The brand-new specimen might represent the earliest record of the Miopetaurista genus in North America.
“As the environment cooled gradually, the Pleistocene Ice Ages caused the seclusion of these huge flying squirrels in warmer sanctuaries like Florida, and eventually added to their termination,” stated Dr. Montserrat Grau-Camats, likewise from the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
“The last American Miopetaurista lived countless years after all Eurasian types of this genus had actually vanished, implying at the time they were ‘living fossils’.”
The group’s work was released in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution
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M. Grau-Camats et al2025. Moving in between continents: an evaluation of the North American record of the huge flying squirrel Miopetaurista (Rodentia, Sciuridae) with the description of brand-new product from the Gray Fossil Site (Tennessee). J Mammal Evol 32, 8; doi: 10.1007/ s10914-025-09751-w
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