'They were so divergent in the length of the copies of these microsatellite markers that not only were they two distinct populations, but. Not even each other's closest relativeĪrbogast and his team analyzed the squirrels' mitochondrial DNA to determine how different the two populations were and how long ago they diverged from one another - likely about one million years ago.īut mitochondrial DNA is only passed on matrilineally - that is, by the mother - so the team also analyzed the squirrels' nuclear DNA for markers known as microsatellites, which can be used to determine how much gene flow is happening between populations - that is, how much they are breeding with one another.

'No one's done any ecological or behavioural studies looking at trying to see what the differences were, because before, everyone thought they were just one species,' Arbogast said. Initial indications are that Humboldt's squirrels tend to be smaller and darker in colour, but further study will be needed for conclusive answers. 'Kind of funny for a scientist, right?'Īrbogast and his team have not yet determined a precise list of features or behaviours that differentiate Humbolt's flying squirrel (Glaucomys oregonensis) from the wider-ranging northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) other than their differing DNA. 'He was so famous that he was considered to be the second most famous person in the world behind Napoleon,' Arbogast said. Meet Humboldt's flying squirrelĪrbogast and his team dubbed the new species Humboldt's flying squirrel in honour of the state university where Arbogast spent the first eight years of his career - and also the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt, of whom Arbogast is a big fan. They're small, quiet and mostly nocturnal, and therefore rarely seen in the wild.

'What we found was that there were definitely two very distinct genetic groups.'įlying squirrels can be found across the world and use a furry membrane between their front and back legs to glide between trees, steering and braking with their tails. 'We had done some work in the past that suggested that somewhere out in the Pacific Northwest, there was a genetic break between the Pacific coastal population and the ones that were more interior in British Columbia and the Rocky Mountains,' said the study's lead author Brian Arbogast, an associate professor of biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmingdon. Brian Arbogast, the study's lead author, holds a Humboldt's flying squirrel, found on the Pacific coast between southern B.C.

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