Page 92 - Atlas Of The World's Strangest Animals

92 ATLAS OF THE WORLD’S STRANGEST ANIMALS

Launching itself from a handy branch, the sugar glider spreads By adjusting the tightness of the membrane and the angle of
out its arms and legs to reveal a ‘gliding membrane’. its tail, the sugar glider is able to ‘steer’ through the forest.

There are exceptions to every rule. Not every bird can fly, (meaning ‘ancient gliding beast’), used a fur-covered
and not every mammal is earthbound. Bats are the only membrane to sweep through the air in much the same
true fliers in the mammal kingdom, but that doesn’t mean way as today’s gliders do.
they’re the only mammals to take to the air. Squirrels, Unlike flight, which is powered, controlled movement,
possums and colugos are all accomplished gliders. Fish, gliding relies on gravity. So sugar gliders usually start from
squid, lizards and snakes have mastered the art, too! a high perch and then drift downwards to a lower perch.
According to a new fossil, found in China in 2006, It’s not an exact science, and in some species it can be little
mammals probably took to the skies during the Mesozoic more than controlled falling! Yet, as David Attenborough
era.That’s around 70 million years earlier than was initially demonstrated in his BBC TV documentary The Life of
thought and around the same time as birds were trying to Mammals, some gliders, like the colugo, can control the
develop the ability to fly. It’s believed that this ancient, direction of their fall. Sugar gliders seem to be highly
squirrel-sized mammal, dubbed Volaticotherium antiquum skilled too.They can glide distances of up to 45m (147.6ft)
and even catch moths in flight.
Gliding may seem inefficient compared to flying, but it
Sugar glider habitats offers great advantages to those species that master it. It
enables them to cover great distances relatively quickly. It
offers a quick get-away route when danger threatens and,
in the case of sugar gliders, it carries them from one meal
of tree sap to another with little effort.

Amazing marsupials
It was the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707–78) who
first developed a usable system of scientific nomlecature to
describe and classify animals.This placed all animals in
distinct categories, which are determined by shared
physical characteristics. His basic principles are still used
today, although gene testing is now increasingly used to
clarify the complex relationships between species and to
solve many long-standing identification issues.
Within this system, vertebrates (animals with backbones)
that breathe air and give birth to live young are called

(c) 2011 Marshall Cavendish. All Rights Reserved.