Chordates • Earth.com

Sugar glider

(Petaurus breviceps)

galery

Description

The sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps) is a small, omnivorous, arboreal, and nocturnal gliding possum belonging to the marsupial infraclass. The common name refers to its predilection for sugary foods such as sap and nectar and its ability to glide through the air, much like a flying squirrel. They have very similar habits and appearance to the flying squirrel, despite not being closely related an example of convergent evolution. The scientific name, Petaurus breviceps, translates from Latin as "short-headed rope-dancer", a reference to their canopy acrobatics. The genus Petaurus is believed to have originated during the early to mid Miocene period (18 to 24 million years ago), then dispersed from New Guinea to Australia where Australian Petaurus species diverged. The earliest Petaurus species occurred in Australia 4.46 million years ago. The taxonomy of the species has changed over time. It was formerly thought to have had a wide range across Australia and New Guinea, the only glider to have this distribution, and to be divided into seven subspecies; three occurring in Australia, four in New Guinea, although debate regarding current species delineation continues. These seven subspecies were designated by small morphological differences such as colour and body size. However, genetic analysis using mitochondrial DNA indicated that the morphological subspecies may not represent genetically unique populations. Further studies found significant variation within populations classified in P. breviceps, sufficient enough to split into multiple species. The subspecies P. b. biacensis, from Biak Island off New Guinea, was reclassified as a separate species, Biak glider (Petaurus biacensis). In 2020, a landmark study found that P. breviceps actually comprised three cryptic species: the Krefft's glider (Petaurus notatus), found throughout most of eastern Australia and introduced to Tasmania, the savanna glider (Petaurus ariel) native to northern Australia, and the true P. breviceps, restricted to a small section of coastal forest in southern Queensland and most of New South Wales.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum:
Class: Mammalia
Order:Diprotodontia
Family:Petauridae
Genus:Petaurus
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