Scientists discover a new species of a giant flying squirrel in the Primorsky Territory

Scientists have discovered a new type of ancient giant flying squirrel during excavations in the territory of the Leopard Land National Park in the Primorsky Territory. According to the National Park, the bones of the rarest animal were discovered in the Sukhaya cave by paleontologists of the Federal Research Center for Biodiversity of the Far Eastern Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The age of the remains is about 30 thousand years. 

This is a new species of a giant flying squirrel - Petaurista tetyukhensis. 

Besides the Sukhaya cave, bone remains of this species were found this year in the Tetyukhinskaya cave in the north of Primorsky Territory. This species was recorded only there, representatives of the national park noted.  

However, the scientists highlighted that the discovery of a new species is a rare and important affair for paleontology. 

According to the head of the expedition, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Mikhail Tiunov, despite the large amount of paleontological research in neighboring China, their experts did not find bone remains of a giant flying squirrel.

“This suggests that either, they have not yet been found, or it didn’t inhabit the area. Nowadays, the habitats of different types of giant flying squirrels in Southeast Asia look like just “spots” on the map, like separate isolated areas. Perhaps they also lived in the past, and the habitat of the species was limited mainly to the territory of present-day Primorye,” he added. 

The national park reported that the new species was described on the basis of a fragment of the upper jaw with two teeth, as well as several teeth found separately. In the structure of these bone elements, scientists have found distinguishing traits making it different from other species of the same kind of giant flying squirrels. Just as modern giant flying squirrels, their ancestors from the Land of the Leopard probably fed mainly on leaves, fruit and insects. 

The wingspan of these ancient animals during gliding could reach one and a half meters, and they could cover more than 50 meters. 

The “Land of the Leopard” said that among other bright findings that were discovered during excavations in the Sukhaya cave in September 2019, there were fragments of teeth of the Stephanorhinus, which is rare for the territory of Russia. However, if the Stephanorhinus has been previously well known to international scientific society, while the bone remains of other animals found on the Land of the Leopard open new horizons, scientists say. In the course of the work, many bone remains of ancient animals were discovered, the identification of which continues to the present day.

According to paleontologists, the discovery of the teeth of a giant flying squirrel as well as the finding of bone remains of the Stephanorhinus, confirms that tens of thousands of years ago the climate of modern Primorye was completely different.

Based on materials from the Leopard Land National Park