Volaticotherium
Sign in to saveVolaticotherium antiquum (meaning "ancient gliding beast") is an extinct, gliding, insectivorous mammal that lived in Asia during the Jurassic period, around 164 mya. It is the only member of the genus Volaticotherium.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- monotypic taxon
- Parent taxon
- Triconodontidae
- Image
- Volaticotherium.jpg
Show 5 more facts
- taxon name
- Volaticotherium
- taxon rank
- genus
- Commons category
- Volaticotherium
- temporal range start
- Late Jurassic
- temporal range end
- Early Cretaceous
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Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Discovery
- Description
- Classification
- References
- External links
Volaticotherium antiquum (meaning "ancient gliding beast") is an extinct, gliding, insectivorous mammal that lived in Asia during the Jurassic period, around 164 mya. It is the only member of the genus Volaticotherium.
The discovery of Volaticotherium provided the earliest-known record of a gliding mammal (70 million years older than the next oldest example), until the discovery of the contemporary haramiyidans Maiopatagium, Vilevolodon and Xianshou, and provided further evidence of mammalian diversity during the Mesozoic Era. The closely related and significantly older Argentoconodon shows similar post-cranial adaptations for aerial locomotion also seen in Volaticotherium.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Volaticotherium” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.