Fossil Of Oldest Flying Mammal Found In China

Scientists have discovered that animals like squirrels were flying at least 125 million years ago, 70 million years earlier than they had thought.

This means that the animals had taken to the skies at about the same time as birds started to learn to fly, or maybe even before.

This is what they think the creature might have looked like.

It would have used its claws to climb up trees where it could then glide down from.

Image: Chuang Zhao and Lida Xing

They are the earliest flying mammals to be found so far and would have been alive at the same time as the dinosaurs in the Mesozoic era.

(Mammals are creatures that give birth to live babies, unlike birds, who lay eggs first.)

A fossil of the animal was found in Inner Mongolia in China by a team of Chinese and American scientists. It was about the same size as a squirrel and would have had fur-covered skin 'wings' between its legs, which it used to glide through the air.

This is a photo of the fossil.

If you look carefully you can spot its legs and bones.

The scientists have called it Volaticotherium Antiquus, which means 'ancient gliding beast'.

Its sharp teeth mean it probably ate insects and the scientists think that it was nocturnal, which means that it slept in the day and was awake at night, like hamsters or owls.

They calculated that it would have been about 12-14cm long and weighed around 70 grams - that's about the same weight as a small mobile phone.

Because the creature was so light and its skin wings were quite large it would have glided quite easily, although not quickly enough to catch insects in mid-air.

The earliest known flying bird is called Archaeopteryx and lived around 150 million years ago. Dr Jin Meng, who was on the team that found the new fossil, said he thought the squirrel-like creature could possibly have lived between 130 and 165 million years ago.

Before that, the earliest fossil found of a flying mammal was a bat from 51 million years ago.

Although these days birds are the most common type of flying animal, there are still some mammals around today that fly, like this bat and flying squirrels.

Photo: Craig Hauger

As well as the Archaeopteryx there were lots of other dinosaurs that came later that could fly or had feathers.

The Natural History Museum's Dino Birds website tells you all about them.

If you want to find out more about fossils check out the Oxford University Museum of Natural History's fossil page.

For loads more about dinosaurs check out Show Me's Dinosaur page - it's got all sorts of dino games and interesting facts.