Volaticotherium antiquum

Another highly specialized mammaliaform from this tiaojishan formation!
It should come as no suprise.

Volaticotherium is a quite popular mesozoic synapsid that made quite some news when discovered, seeing as it's the oldest known gliding mammal (not true actually, there are older volaticotheres, it's just that this one made us realize they glided, because this one has a nice fancy fossil with preserved patagia).

Well, Volaticotherium: it looks like a sugar glider or a flying squirrel, but ecology-wise, that niche was taken by the local scansoriopterygids like Yi.
Volaticotherium was, unlike sugar gliders, which are herbivorous mostly, an insectivore. It had a more animalivorous dention, with large canines and shearing molars.
Due to the relatively small size of it, it has been proposed that this was for insectivory rather than macropredatory behaviour.

Scansorioterygids, on the other hand, had weird protruding teeth that would have been ideal for chipping away tree bark and getting through the cycad fruits.


Volaticotherium had long limbs and large patagia, hence it was presumably just as good at gliding as flying squirrels, colugo's and sugar gliders.
It has quite large and curved claws on it's feet (the hands are poorly preserved) indicating good aboreal capability.