This large membrane combined with its light weight suggested it
was an agile glider, the researchers said, although probably not
deft enough to capture its prey mid-flight.
V. antiquus had elongated limbs, like modern flying
mammals, and its skeleton suggested the presence of a stiff tail,
which would have acted as a rudder in flight.
The researchers believe the creature was tree-dwelling,
nocturnal and, because of its sharp teeth, most likely feasted on a
diet of insects.
This new find places the V. antiquus as the earliest
known flying mammal. Dr Jin Meng, an author on the paper and
palaeontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, said he
believed the creature lived between 130 and 165 million years ago.
With the earliest known flying bird, Archaeopteryx,
dating to about 150 million years ago, this could mean mammals
flirted with air travel before birds.
The earliest record of a bat, capable of controlled flight,
dates to about 51 million years ago; while, before this discovery,
the earliest known gliding mammal was a rodent that lived 30 million
years ago in the Late Oligocene period.
The researchers believe the gaps in the fossil records for
flying mammals are because the creatures delicate flying features
are difficult to preserve.
Dr Meng said: "This new evidence of gliding flight in early
mammals is giving us a dramatically new picture of many of the
animals that lived in the age of dinosaurs."
He added: "Establishing a new order probably only happens once,
if that, in the lifetime of a lucky palaeomammalogist."