Glaucomys

The three species of New World flying squirrels, in the genus Glaucomys, are the only species of flying squirrel found in North America. They are distributed from Alaska to Honduras. They are similar in many ways to the Eurasian flying squirrels in the genus Pteromys. Two species of New World flying squirrels can be easily distinguished on the basis of size and ventral pelage. Northern flying squirrels, Glaucomys sabrinus are larger and have belly hair that is dark at the base and white at the tip. Southern flying squirrels, Glaucomys volans, are smaller and have belly hairs that are completely white. Humboldt's flying squirrel is more difficult to distinguish from the northern flying squirrel where their ranges overlap. In fact, they were once considered conspecific. Humboldt's flying squirrel is considered a cryptic species. They are generally smaller and darker than northern flying squirrels.

Glaucomys

(c) Kristof & Yulia, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
flying squirrelPBDB
Sits inside
PteromyinaePBDB
Diet
granivore, frugivorePBDB, for Sciuridae
Life habit
glidingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 51 occurrencesPleistocene — about 44 of 51 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 7 of 51 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 30 occurrences1.8 Mya11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

51 occurrences of Glaucomys on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

51 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Wicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°W

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The named rock units Glaucomys has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 50 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Glaucomys and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Glaucomys and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

765 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 40 sites for Glaucomys, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

25 references

Each of the 51 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 13 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Glaucomys

Credit
(c) Kristof & Yulia, some rights reserved (CC BY)
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPteromyinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Thomas 1908