New flying squirrel species discovered in China's Yunnan

KUNMING - A research team comprising Chinese, Australian and Lao scholars has discovered a new species of flying squirrel in Gaoligong Mountain in Southwest China's Yunnan province.

The paper on the discovery was published in the international journal Zoological Research.

The new species, Priapomys, is only found in northern Myanmar and Yunnan's Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture and Baoshan city, said Li Quan, co-author of the paper and a member of the Kunming Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Based on criteria developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the team recommended that the new species be assessed as Near Threat (NT), Li said.

The discovery is of great significance to the study of tooth evolution, sexual selection, and homogeneous species formation of the flying squirrel, as well as marine transgressions, climate change and animal and plant protection of the Indochina Peninsula during the Late Cenozoic period, Li added.