Zenkerella (rodent)

Zenkerella
Temporal range: Early Miocene to recent[1] 20–0 Ma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Suborder: Anomaluromorpha
Family: Zenkerellidae
Matschie, 1898
Genus: Zenkerella
Matschie, 1898
Species

Zenkerella is a genus of rodent, the only member of the family Zenkerellidae. It was formerly classified in Anomaluridae until phylogenetic studies made its distinctiveness clear.[2] While the Anomalurus of the family Anomaluridae has gliding membranes between its forelimb and hindlimb, the Zenkerella has no such adaptation.[3] It is estimated from fossil records that this divergence might have occurred in the middle of the Eocene.

There is a single extant, the Cameroon scaly-tail, and a single fossil representative. The fossil species Zenkerella wintoni is known from a single mandible from Songhor, Kenya dated to the Early Miocene.[4]

  1. ^ "Mindat.org". www.mindat.org. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
  2. ^ Fabre, Pierre-Henri; Tilak, Marie-Ka; Denys, Christiane; Gaubert, Philippe; Nicolas, Violaine; Douzery, Emmanuel J. P.; Marivaux, Laurent (2018). "Flightless scaly-tailed squirrels never learned how to fly: A reappraisal of Anomaluridae phylogeny". Zoologica Scripta. 47 (4): 404–417. doi:10.1111/zsc.12286. ISSN 1463-6409. S2CID 89754034.
  3. ^ Heritage, S.; Fernández, D.; Sallam, H. M.; Cronin, D. T.; Esara Echube, J. M.; Seiffert, E. R. (August 16, 2016). "Ancient phylogenetic divergence of the enigmatic African rodent Zenkerella and the origin of anomalurid gliding". PeerJ. 4: e2320. doi:10.7717/peerj.2320. PMC 4991859. PMID 27602286.
  4. ^ Werdelin, Lars; Sanders, William Joseph (2010). Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. University of California Press. p. 290. ISBN 9780520257214.