Meet your new cousins, the flying lemurs

A "furry kite" looking like a cross between a squirrel and a bat is the closest animal relative to humans after apes, monkeys and lemurs, research has shown.

The colugo lives in the forests of south-east Asia, where it glides from tree to tree on "wings" made from skin stretched between its limbs.



Despite being called "flying lemurs", the creatures are not lemurs and do not belong to the group of mammals which have large brains and binocular vision and includes apes, monkeys and humans.



However, new genetic evidence shows that the two are closely related. In fact, scientists described colugos and primates as being mammalian "sisters".



Gliding mammals, or dermopterans, and primates are believed to have parted company on the path of evolution around 80 million years ago, when dinosaurs still ruled.

Which of several mammalian groups is the most closely related to primates has been a hotly debated topic. Some scientists argue that the honour should go to scandentians, a group that includes Asian tree shrews - tiny animals with very large brains for their body size.