Maiopatagium Explained

Maiopatagium is an extinct genus of gliding euharamiyids which existed in Asia during the Jurassic period.^[1] It possessed a patagium between its limbs and presumably had similar lifestyle to living flying squirrels and colugos. The type species is Maiopatagium furculiferum, which was described from the Tiaojishan Formation by Zhe-Xi Luo in 2017; it lived in what is now the Liaoning region of China during the late Jurassic (Oxfordian age).^[2] Maiopatagium and Vilevolodon, described concurrently, offer clues to the ways various synapsids have taken to the skies over evolutionary time scales.^[3] A second species, M. sibiricum, was described from the Bathonian aged Itat Formation in western Siberia, Russia in 2019^[4]

Notes and References

1. Meng . Qing-Jin . Grossnickle . David M. . Liu . Di . Zhang . Yu-Guang . Neander . April I. . Ji . Qiang . Luo . Zhe-Xi . 2017 . New gliding mammaliaforms from the Jurassic . Nature . en . 548 . 7667 . 291–296 . 10.1038/nature23476 . 28792929 . 205259206 . 1476-4687.
2. Zhe-Xi Luo . Qing-Jin Meng . David M. Grossnickle . Di Liu . April I. Neander . Yu-Guang Zhang . Qiang Ji . 2017 . New evidence for mammaliaform ear evolution and feeding adaptation in a Jurassic ecosystem . Nature . 548 . 7667. 326–329. 10.1038/nature23483 . 28792934 . 2017Natur.548..326L . 4463476 .
3. Rare Fossils Reveal New Species of Ancient Gliding Mammals, National Geographic: https://web.archive.org/web/20170809203822/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/fossils-flying-gliding-mammals/
4. Averianov. Alexander O.. Martin. Thomas. Lopatin. Alexey V.. Schultz. Julia A.. Schellhorn. Rico. Krasnolutskii. Sergei. Skutschas. Pavel. Ivantsov. Stepan. 2019-11-05. Haramiyidan mammals from the Middle Jurassic of Western Siberia, Russia. Part 1: Shenshouidae and Maiopatagium. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 39. 4. en. e1669159. 10.1080/02724634.2019.1669159. 209439988. 0272-4634.