anomalure

{{Short description|Family of rodents}}

{{use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}

{{More citations needed|date=November 2007}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| name = Anomalures

| fossil_range = Late Eocene to recent

{{cite web

|title = Anomaluridae

|department = Fossil finds

|website = mindat.org

|publisher = Hudson Institute of Mineralogy

|place = Keswick, VA

|type = beta test

|url=https://www.mindat.org/taxon-9429.html

|access-date=2021-06-12}}{{Fossil range|38|0}}

| image = AnomalurusBeecroftiWolf.jpg

| image_caption = Anomalurus beecrofti, Beecroft's flying squirrel
Artist: Joseph Wolf, 1851

| taxon = Anomaluridae

| authority = Gervais in d'Orbigny, 1849

| type_genus = Anomalurus

| type_genus_authority = Waterhouse, 1843

| subdivision_ranks = Genera

| subdivision = *Anomalurus

• Idiurus

}}

The Anomaluridae are a family of rodents found in central Africa.

{{MSW3 Anomaluridae

| id = 13100010

| page = 1533

}}

They are known as anomalures or scaly-tailed squirrels or African flying squirrels. The six extant species are classified into two genera.

All anomalurids have membranes between their front and hind legs like those of the boreal flying squirrels, but they are not closely related to the flying squirrels that form the separate tribe Petauristini of the family Sciuridae. They are distinguished by two rows of pointed, raised scales on the undersides of their tails.

{{cite book

|last = Fleming |first = Theodore

|year = 1984

|section = {{grey|[article title not cited]}}

|title = The Encyclopedia of Mammals

|editor = Macdonald, D.

|publisher= Facts on File

|location= New York, NY

|page = [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofma00mals_0/page/632 632]

|isbn= 0-87196-871-1

|section-url = https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofma00mals_0/page/632

|url = https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofma00mals_0

|url-access = registration

|via = Internet Archive

}}

The anatomy of their heads is quite different from that of the sciurid flying squirrels.

By extending their limbs, anomalures transform themselves into a gliding platform that they control by manipulating the membranes and tail.

{{cite encyclopedia

| title=Anomalure

|department = Rodent

|encyclopedia = Britannica

|edition = online

|url=https://www.britannica.com/animal/anomalure

}}

Like North American flying squirrels, these species have a cartilaginous rod that aids them in maintaining the extension of the patagium when in flight; unlike flying squirrels, their cartilage originates at the elbow joint rather than at the wrist.

{{cite journal

|last = Waterhouse |first = George Robert

|date = 27 September 1842

|title = Descriptions of new species of quadrupeds collected by Mr. Fraser at Fernando Po

|journal = Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London

|volume=10 |page=125

|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/96442#page/277/mode/1up

|access-date=9 December 2023

}}

Most anomalurid species roost during the day in hollow trees, with up to several dozen animals per tree. They are primarily herbivorous, and may travel up to {{convert|6|km|mi|abbr=on}} from their roosting tree in search of leaves, flowers, or fruit, although they also eat a small amount of insects. They give birth to litters up to three young, which are born already furred and active.

Anomalurids represent one of several independent evolutions of gliding ability in mammals, having evolved from climbing animals.

{{cite journal

|last1 = Fabre |first1 = Pierre-Henri

|last2 = Tilak |first2 = Marie-Ka

|display-authors = etal

|date = June 2018

|title = Flightless scaly-tailed squirrels never learned how to fly: A reappraisal of Anomaluridae phylogeny

|journal = Zoologica Scripta

|volume = 47 |issue = 4 |pages = 404–417

|doi = 10.1111/zsc.12286 |s2cid = 89754034

}}

{{cite journal

| last1=Coster | first1=Pauline M.C. | last2=Beard | first2=K. Christopher

| last3=Salem | first3=Mustafa J. | last4=Chaimanee | first4=Yaowalak

| last5=Jaeger | first5=Jean-Jacques

| year=2015

| title=New fossils from the Paleogene of central Libya illuminate the evolutionary history of endemic African anomaluroid rodents

| journal=Frontiers in Earth Science

| volume=3 | page=56

| doi=10.3389/feart.2015.00056 | doi-access=free

| bibcode=2015FrEaS...3...56C | hdl=1808/22093 | hdl-access=free

}}

The others include the "true" or sciurid flying squirrels of boreal Eurasia and North America, the colugos or "flying lemurs" of Southeast Asia, and marsupial gliding possums of Australia.