clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk   

A gliding mammal that lives in the forests of south-east Asia is our closest relative after apes, monkeys and lemurs, a DNA study shows.

Colugos are the "sisters" of primates, sharing a common ancestor some 80 million years ago when dinosaurs had their heyday, say US scientists.

Until now, many experts thought tree shrews were closer to primates.

Writing in Science, the team calls for urgent action to decipher the full genome sequence of colugos.

Colugos are known colloquially as flying lemurs; despite this they do not fly and they are not true lemurs.

Image courtesy of Norman Lim, National University of Singapore
Bat-like in appearance, and the size of a large squirrel, they use a special fold of skin to glide from tree to tree in tropical rainforests.
This study resolves a long-standing question on who the closest relative of primates was
Dr William Murphy
"This will help us better interpret early primate evolution and those changes at the DNA level and in skeletal appearance that led to modern primates and ultimately to the human lineage itself."
Image courtesy of Norman Lim, National University of Singapore