Showing papers on "Flying squirrel published in 2015"

Factors explaining the occurrence of the Siberian flying squirrel in urban forest landscape

Abstract: Urban forests are often modified and fragmented by human land use and the original habitat might exist only in remnant patches. Due to their specific habitat requirements and unwillingness to move through matrix many forest-dwelling mammals are susceptible to changes in landscape structure. It is important to understand how the availability of suitable habitat and landscape fragmentation affect species distributions, and what landscape characteristics are essential to the persistence of a given species to conserve urban wildlife. We investigated the effect of landscape composition and configuration on the occurrence of the Siberian flying squirrel, a small-sized arboreal rodent, in a partly urbanized area of Eastern Finland. All suitable and potential forest patches were searched to determine the presence or absence of species, and the landscape characteristics of occupied sites were compared to those of unoccupied sites. Flying squirrels occurred both at the edges of large suitable forested areas, but also in small forest fragments within residential areas. Surprisingly, urban areas did not have a negative effect on the flying squirrel occurrence. Occurrence probability was not either associated with the proportion of suitable habitat, but occupied sites contained larger amount of movement habitat and had shorter distances to nearest occupied sites than unoccupied sites. Our results show that flying squirrels can exist in urbanized landscape and near residential areas, but more detailed information on habitat use and survival is still needed to determine the long-term persistence and viability of the urban populations.

Late Miocene flying squirrels from Can Llobateres 1 (Vallès-Penedès Basin, Catalonia): systematics and palaeobiogeography

Abstract: The flying squirrels (Sciuridae, Pteromyini) from the late Miocene (MN9, early Vallesian) site of Can Llobateres 1 (Valles-Penedes Basin, Catalonia, Spain) are represented by up to five different taxa: Albanensia aff. grimmi, Miopetaurista neogrivensis, Miopetaurista crusafonti, Blackia miocaenica and cf. Pliopetaurista sp. Miopetaurista crusafonti is by far the most abundant flying squirrel, and an emended differential diagnosis for this species is proposed on the basis of the rich collection from Can Llobateres 1. The presence of Blackia miocaenica and cf. Pliopetaurista sp. at this site deserves special attention because these taxa have not been previously reported from Spain during the Vallesian. Despite their extreme rarity in the Valles-Penedes Basin, evidence indicates greater faunal affinities with the Central European forest faunas than with other regions. Indeed, flying squirrels are not recorded from any other Spanish site during the Vallesian, which supports previous studies which have shown that Catalonia represented a transitional area between Central Europe and the drier and less forested regions of inner Spain. The brief occurrence of B. miocaenica and cf. Pliopetaurista sp. at Can Llobateres 1 might be explained by the short-lasting presence of favourable environments, although the available data do not indicate any major environmental change. Alternatively, we suggest that their presence is likely related to the enormous sampling effort devoted to this site, allowing for the recovery of very rare taxa. Therefore, these flying squirrels would have a longer range in the area but would have very specific ecological requirements, which, in turn, would account for their rarity.

Characterization of the complete mitochondrial genome of the Hainan giant flying squirrel Petaurista hainana (Rodentia: Sciuridae).

Abstract: The complete mitochondrial genome of Petaurista hainana from Hainan Island of China is 16,502 bp in length Similar to most other mammals, it contains 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNAs, 22 tRNAs and 2 non-coding regions The overall base composition of the H-strand is 3177% A, 2631% C, 1331% G and 2861% T The base composition clearly showed the A-T skew The mitochondrial genome of P hainana presented in this report will be useful for species designation, conservation and phylogenetic study in Sciuridae

A summary of the taxonomy and distribution of the red giant flying squirrel, Petaurista petaurista (Sciuridae, Sciurinae, Pteromyini), in mainland Southeast Asia with the first record from Lao PDR

Abstract: The occurrence of the red giant flying squirrel, Petaurista petaurista, in Lao PDR is confirmed on the basis of a single adult male specimen obtained from an informal food market in Thatlouang village, Xekong Province in the south of the country. This individual was reported to have been collected from close-by Thatlouang in the mixed deciduous forest or dry dipterocarp forest on the Bolaven Plateau. The record extends the known distribution of this species by approximately 700 km eastwards. Information is provided on the external, cranial, dental, and bacular characters of the new Lao specimen. It is compared with the holotypes and/or type descriptions of seven taxa, namely, barroni, candidula, cicur, melanotus, penangensis, taylori, and terutaus, described from mainland Southeast Asia, all of which are currently included in the synonymy of P. petaurista. On the basis of its external pelage colour, the Lao specimen is referred to P. p. barroni, which was described from southeast Thailand and is considered here to be a valid subspecies.

Phylogeography of the Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans L., 1785) and the history of the formation of the modern species range: New data.

Abstract: 181 Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans L., 1758) is the only representative of the subfamily Pteromyi nae, occurring on the territory of Northern Eurasia. The habitats of this species are confined to the forest area (mainly conifers, partly the forest steppe and for est tundra zones). The range of this species covers the territory of Eurasia from Scandinavia, Finland, and the Baltic Sea to the Eastern Siberia and the Korean Pen insula as well as Sakhalin and Hokkaido islands [1, 2]. Although the results of phylogeographic studies using cytochrome b (cyt b) gene of mitochondrial DNA as a marker were presented in several papers [3, 4], the central part of the range—the territory of the Urals and Western Siberia—remains unstudied (Fig. 1). In addition, the history of the formation and intraspecific differentiation of P. volans during the dispersal of this species to the forest zone of Eurasia is not entirely clear.

A Methodological Criticism to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Abstract: The first studies relating to classification of creatures had been done in 18th century, by Carl Linnaeus (1) Linnaeus had been regarded as the father of morphologic classification (taxonomy). The creatures have been classified according to similarity of their appearances, in the morphologic classification. For instance; a shark that is a kind of fish and a dolphin that is a kind of mammalia had been examined within the scope of same family, although they are not similar as genetic structure. Flying squirrel (tribe of pteromyini) and Petaurus breviceps are very similar to each other with their big eyes, the white bellies and the stiff integument segment that takes place between their arm and legs and provides soaring and keeping the balance; therefore, they have been regarded as close relatives. However, the flying squirrel is a placental mammal (infraclass eutheria) and the Petaurus breviceps is a pouched mammal (infraclass marsupialia). Although they are different originally, there are creatures that appear differently even though they are similar genetically on the contrary the creatures that appear similar. Consequently, some bird species that have different appearances of cock and hen (for instance, Agelaius phoenicus) have been defined as different species by misunderstanding their physical appearances (2).