Ancient beast may have glided before birds

LONDON, Dec 14 (Reuters) Gliding squirrel-like mammals that lived with the dinosaurs at least 130 million years ago may have conquered the skies around the same time, or even earlier, than birds, scientists said.

The newly discovered flyer called Volaticotherium antiquus, or ancient gliding beast, extends the earliest record of gliding flight for mammals to at least 70 million years earlier than previously thought.

A fossil of the creature, which represents a previously unknown group of mammals, was found in rock beds in northeastern China.

''It is the first fossil record of a gliding mammal in Mesozoic, in the age of the dinosaurs. Previously we have had no fossil record of mammal that had the ability of flight,'' said Jin Meng, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said in an interview yesterday.

The finding suggest other mammals from the Mesozoic Era, from 248 to 65 million years ago, could have been much more diverse than scientists had thought.

Meng and researchers at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing described the flying mammal in a report in the journal Nature.

It is thought to be one of the most important discoveries of a major mammalian group since a review of Mesozoic mammals by Richard Owen in 1871.

''This mammal is so different from what we know of Mesozoic mammals. So we think it presents a new branch of early mammals,'' Meng said.

The oldest previously known gliding mammal was a rodent. Bats took to the skies with powered flight about 51 million years ago.

But the new gliding mammal is not a direct ancestor of any other living mammals.

SMALL AGILE GLIDER The fossil shows the newly discovered mammal weighed less than 1 pound (0.45 kilogram), was an agile flier and had pointed, sharp teeth which it used to eat insects.

Toe bones suggest it was also able to climb trees, critical for a glider to reach heights from which to take off.

It had a large skin membrane from its fore to hind limbs which acted like an airfoil during flight. There is also evidence of fur on the membrane and other parts of its body.

A long tail could have acted as a rudder during flight.

Fossils of gliding animals are extremely rare. The scientists said the fossil record for gliding mammals is so scant because the small creatures are poorly preserved, particularly their gliding structure.

''Because they are small mammals and live in forests it is harder for them to be preserved as fossils,'' said Meng.

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