The Flying mammals Are vertebrate animals that have the ability to fly or plan because they share characteristics of mammals and at the same time make use of wings to hold in the air.
Flying mammals have wings or special limbs that they use to fly or to glide, but they still have the main features of mammals, such as: breastfeeding their young with milk, having hair or fur or having warm blood (staying warm even in cold climates) , among other.
Flying mammals may be classified as active or passive with respect to their type of flight. If they can remain in the air by flapping their wings like birds, they are known as active.
If, on the other hand, they are only capable of planning long distances in the air, they are known as passive.
That said, the only mammal that can actually fly is the bat. As for the other mammals capable of flying, they plan long distances and the most recognized are flying squirrels and colugos.
The mammals that plan have thin skin between the limbs so they look like a comet. The skin they use to plan is covered by a layer of fur full of fur.
The limbs can be lengthened to maximize the"wing"area. Gliding mammals have also developed a good grip to land (claws) and to climb to the next gliding point.
Flying mammals
1- Bats
Bats account for 20% of species within mammals with the staggering number of 1,240 different bats.
A curious fact about these mammals is that a species of bat called a vampire bat that can survive by feeding on blood.
Bats are not only the only flying mammals with active flight, but they have also been recognized as the fastest animals in horizontal flight.
An article published in the web portal New scientist Has outlined a University of Tennessee study highlighting a new bat beat record.
In the study, tracking devices were placed in a total of seven Brazilian bats that reached the incredible speed of 160km / h, a difference of 48km / h with respect to the old record of horizontal flight speed reached by the common swift, the bird Faster, with a mark of 112km / h.
2- Marsupial gliders
Sugar Planner
Marsupials are mammals whose females carry their children in a kind of bag. The most common example of a marsupial mammal is the kangaroo, however, there are gliding marsupials. Most of these species are native to Australia.
Three marsupial families in Australia are gliders:
- Pseudocheiridae , Emphasizing the Petauroides volans that not only plans but also has a weakly prehensile tail, that is to say, its tail is adapted to be fastened to the trees or to pick up objects or fruits.
- Acrobatidae , Which has the smallest glider, the size of a mouse: the Glider Glider ( Acrobates pygmaeus ), Which is the only marsupial to have a tail with flattened rigid hairs arranged like a feather to help him direct his flight.
- Petauridae . For example, the Sugar Glider ( Petaurus breviceps ) Also known as the Sugar Phalanx or Sugar Petaurus, is a small animal whose tail is about the same length as its body. It is characterized by preferring the consumption of sugary foods.
3- Flying Squirrels
There are 35 species of squirrels that plan ( Sciuridae ) Found in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Flying squirrels ( Petaurista spp ) Use their tails to steer and their lateral wings make them less agile than other squirrels, so these flying squirrels are nocturnal and reserved.
The Spotted Giant Flying Squirrel ( P. elegans ) Can grow up to 90 cm from head to tail.
Squirrels are classified as rodents and a total of 12 species of rodents that plan, belonging to the family Anomaluridae Are in Africa; Its distinguishing feature is its scaly tails.
Squirrels are recognized as one of the most efficient glider animals, reaching a single jump, distances that exceed 200 meters.
4- Colugos
The Colugo is often called a"flying lemur"but it does not fly and is not a lemur. It is more closely related to bats.
This mammal, which is usually the size of a cat, is among the largest mammals.
You can plan more than 100 meters and lose only about 10 meters in height during your tour, spreading your membranes to take a kite shape and put on the air.
Found in the forests of Southeast Asia, the colugo survives with a diet of leaves and flowers of low nutrition so it is usually inactive for long periods of time.
It feeds backwards like a lazy one. To avoid birds of prey, it activates at dawn or dusk.
5- The oldest flying mammal
Despite the difficulty, numerous researchers have indicated that a fossil discovered in China suggests that mammals were testing the flight at about the same time, or even before birds.
The earliest record of a bat that is capable of controlled flight dates back about 51 million years, whereas, prior to this discovery, the oldest known glider mammal was a rodent that lived 30 million years ago in the Late Oligocene period.
Researchers believe that gaps in fossil records of flying mammals are due to the delicate flight characteristics of creatures that are difficult to preserve.
The researchers said the squirrel-sized animal lived at least 125 million years ago and used a skin-covered skin membrane to glide through the air. The creature was so unusual, they said, that it belonged to a new order of mammals.
The Chinese-American team in charge of the investigation said that Volaticotherium antiquus , Which means"ancient sliding beast,"belonged to an ancestral line already extinct and unrelated to modern flying mammals such as flying bats or marsupials.
This new finding places V. antiquus as the oldest known flying mammal. Dr. Jin Meng, author of the article and paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, said he believed the creature lived between 130 and 165 million years ago.
References
- Rebecca E. Hirsch. (2015). Vampire Bats: Nighttime Flying Mammals. Google Books: Lerner Publications.
- Charles Walsh Schwartz, Elizabeth Reeder Schwartz. (2001). The Wild Mammals of Missouri. Google Books: University of Missouri Press.
- Stephen Matthew Jackson. (2012). Gliding Mammals of the World. Google Books: Csiro Publishing.
- Gary F. McCracken, Kamran Safi, Thomas H. Kunz, Dina K. N. Dechmann, Sharon M. Swartz, Martin Wikelski. (Accepted October 12, 2016.). Airplane tracking documents the fastest flight speeds recorded for bats. Published online November 9, 2016., by The Royal Society Website: http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org
- John R. Hutchinson, Dave Smith, (1996). Vertebrate Flight: Gliding and Parachuting. 1/11/96, University of California Museum of Paleontology: UCMP. Website: ucmp.berkeley.edu
- Aleksandra A. Panyutina, Leonid P. Korzun, Alexander N. Kuznetsov. (2015). Flight of Mammals: From Terrestrial Limbs to Wings. Google Books: Springer.
- Vladimir Evgen'evich Sokolov. (1982). Mammal Skin. Google Books: University of California Press.