Flying lemurs are the closest relatives of primates

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This colugo shows its remarkable patagium or skin wing which allows it to glide from tree to tree in the forests of southeast Asia. Credit: Norman Lim National University of Singapore
This colugo shows its remarkable patagium, or skin wing, which allows it to glide from tree to tree in the forests of southeast Asia. Credit: Norman Lim, National University of Singapore

While the human species is unquestionably a member of the Primate group, the identity of the next closest group to primates within the entire class of living mammals has been hotly debated. Now, new molecular and genomic data gathered by a team including Webb Miller, a professor of biology and computer science and engineering at the Penn State University, has shown that the colugos -- nicknamed the flying lemurs -- is the closest group to the primates.


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