Tibetan woolly flying squirrel
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Eupetaurus
Species:
E. tibetensis
Binomial name
Eupetaurus tibetensis
Jackson, Helgen, Q. Li & Jiang, 2021

The Tibetan woolly flying squirrel (Eupetaurus tibetensis) is a species of very large flying squirrel in the genus Eupetaurus. It is found in the south-central portion of the Tibetan Plateau, namely south-central Tibet, northern Sikkim, and western Bhutan.[1][2][3]

It is thought to be the sister species to the Yunnan woolly flying squirrel (E. nivamons), from which it likely diverged during the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary. It differs from the western woolly flying squirrel (E. cinereus) in its saturated brown pelage with a reddish tinge, and differs from E. nivamons in its black tail tip being much longer than that of E. nivamons.[2]

Although its existence was known since 1879, due to the very few specimens collected, it remained undescribed until 2021. It is only known from several historical specimens. It has been recommended that it be classified as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Explore the Database". www.mammaldiversity.org. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  2. 1 2 3 Jackson, Stephen M; Li, Quan; Wan, Tao; Li, Xue-You; Yu, Fa-Hong; Gao, Ge; He, Li-Kun; Helgen, Kristofer M; Jiang, Xue-Long (2021-05-31). "Across the great divide: revision of the genus Eupetaurus (Sciuridae: Pteromyini), the woolly flying squirrels of the Himalayan region, with the description of two new species". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 194 (2): 502–526. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab018. ISSN 0024-4082.
  3. ↑ "Two New Species of Woolly Flying Squirrels Discovered | Biology | Sci-News.com". Breaking Science News | Sci-News.com. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
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