Biswamoyopterus is a genus of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It contains three known species of very large flying squirrels, with B. laoensis being among the longest of all squirrels. They are distributed in forests in northeast India, southwest China and Laos. Despite their size, species in this genus tend to be very elusive; due to this, all of them have been described relatively recently. In fact 2 out of the 3 species are only known from a single specimen.[2][3][4][5] Additionally, they are easily confused with certain Petaurista giant flying squirrels that are more common and overlap in range with the rare Biswamoyopterus.[6]
| Biswamoyopterus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Specimen of Biswamoyopterus biswasi, viewed from above and below | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Sciuridae |
| Tribe: | Pteromyini |
| Genus: | Biswamoyopterus Saha, 1981[1] |
| Type species | |
| Biswamoyopterus biswasi | |
| Species | |
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| Range of Biswamoyopterus species | |
Species
editThere are currently three known species in this genus:
- Namdapha flying squirrel Biswamoyopterus biswasi
- Mount Gaoligong flying squirrel Biswamoyopterus gaoligongensis
- Laotian giant flying squirrel Biswamoyopterus laoensis
Recent studies have suggested that the three known species are in fact one species. It was based on the Morphological comparisons, where the three species shared nearly similar morphologies.
References
edit- ^ Saha, S. S. (1981). "A new genus and a new species of flying squirrel (Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae) from northeastern India" (PDF). Bulletin of the Zoological Survey of India. 4 (3): 331–336.
- ^ "Biswamoyopterus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
- ^ Bates, Paul J. J.; Satasook, Chutamas; Xayaphet, Vilakhan; Xayavong, Sysouphanh; Bumrungsri, Sara; Douangboubpha, Bounsavane; Sanamxay, Daosavanh (2013-07-15). "Rediscovery of Biswamoyopterus (Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae: Pteromyini) in Asia, with the description of a new species from Lao PDR". Zootaxa. 3686 (4): 471–481. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3686.4.5. PMID 26473234.
- ^ Jiang, Xue-Long; Song, Wen-Yu; Zhao, Wei; Jiang, Ming; Li, Fei; Jackson, Stephen M.; Li, Xue-You; Li, Quan (2019-07-18). "Discovery and description of a mysterious Asian flying squirrel (Rodentia, Sciuridae, Biswamoyopterus) from Mount Gaoligong, southwest China". ZooKeys (864): 147–160. doi:10.3897/zookeys.864.33678. PMC 6658571. PMID 31367180.
- ^ "Meet the newest species from an extremely rare flying squirrel family • Earth.com". Earth.com. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
- ^ Krishna, C. M.; Kumar, A. (2014). "Why the Red Giant Gliding Squirrel Petaurista petaurista is often mistaken for the Namdapha Gliding Squirrel Biswamoyopterus biswasi (Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae) in Namdapha National Park, Arunachal Pradesh, India". Journal of Threatened Taxa. 6 (8): 6138–6141. doi:10.11609/JoTT.o3727.6138-41.