flying lemur

English

Noun

flying lemur (plural flying lemurs)

  1. A colugo (family spp.), having membranes between the front and hind legs similar to those of flying squirrels.
    Flying lemurs do not fly (they glide) and are not lemurs: the nature of their relationship to primates (and to bats and treeshrews, with which they also share characteristics) is the subject of ongoing debate and research.
    • 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 210:
      Another curious animal, which I had met with in Singapore and in Borneo, but which was more abundant here, is the Galeopithecus, or flying lemur. This creature has a broad membrane extending all around its body to the extremities of the toes, and to the point of the rather long tail. This enables it to pass obliquely through the air from one tree to another.

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