Old World flying squirrel
Genus of rodents
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Commonly referred to as the Old World flying squirrels, the genus Pteromys is distributed across temperate Eurasia, the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Although there are a host of flying squirrel genera in Asia (particularly southern Asia), Pteromys is the only one present in Europe.
| Old World flying squirrels Temporal range: Late Pliocene – Recent | |
|---|---|
| |
| Japanese dwarf flying squirrel, (Pteromys momonga) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Sciuridae |
| Tribe: | Pteromyini |
| Genus: | Pteromys G. Cuvier, 1800 |
| Type species | |
| Sciurus volans | |
| Species | |
Characteristics
Species
There are two species in this genus:
- Pteromys momonga – Japanese dwarf flying squirrel – Found in Japan (Honshu and Kyushu).
- Pteromys volans – Siberian flying squirrel – Found in northern Europe (mainly Russia and Finland, some isolated populations in the Baltics) and northern Asia from Siberia to Hokkaido
References
- Nowak, Ronald M. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World, 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1936 pp. ISBN 0-8018-5789-9