A team of scientists from the Charles Darwin University (Australia) has identified two new species of gliders or sugar gliders, after a study revealed that this adorable-looking creature is actually three different species, both genetically and physically.
Unfortunately, this new discovery is associated with a worrying aspect for them, because it means that sugar gliders could be even more threatened than previously thought, especially after the wildfires that swept through southeastern Australia last summer.
The experts looked for key genetic and morphological differences in more than 300 living and preserved specimens from Australian collections, finding that there are at least three distinct species: the sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps) , the savanna glider (Petaurus ariel ) and the Kreft glider (Petaurus notatus ).
These animals are hand-sized nocturnal gliding marsupials that can be found in Australia, New Guinea, and some islands in Indonesia. Its name comes from its taste for sweet nectar and its ability to glide through the air using the parachute-shaped membrane between its limbs, like a ninja squirrel.
The new savanna glider looks like a much smaller version and the two remaining species, the sugar glider and the Krefft glider, look quite similar at first glance, though they have enough distinct genetic characteristics to define themselves as two separate species.
“The distinction of these three species represents a substantially reduced distribution for the sugar glider, making that species vulnerable to large-scale habitat destruction ,” the experts clarify in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
Referencia: Integrative taxonomic investigation of Petaurus breviceps (Marsupialia: Petauridae) reveals three distinct species Teigan Cremona, Andrew M Baker, Steven J B Cooper, Rebecca Montague-Drake, Alyson M Stobo-Wilson, Susan M Carthew Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, zlaa060, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa060
