Zenkerella Temporal range:
Early Miocene to recent
[1]
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Scientific 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]