| Zenkerella Temporal range: Early Miocene to recent 20–0 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N | |
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Scientific classification 
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| 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. While the Anomalurus of the family Anomaluridae has gliding membranes between its forelimb and hindlimb, the Zenkerella has no such adaptation. 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.
References
- "Mindat.org". www.mindat.org. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
- Fabre, Pierre-Henri; Tilak, Marie-Ka; Denys, Christiane; Gaubert, Philippe; Nicolas, Violaine; Douzery, Emmanuel J. P.; Marivaux, Laurent (2018). "Flightless scaly-tailed squirrels never learned how to fly: A reappraisal of Anomaluridae phylogeny". Zoologica Scripta. 47 (4): 404–417. doi:10.1111/zsc.12286. ISSN 1463-6409. S2CID 89754034.
- Heritage, S.; Fernández, D.; Sallam, H. M.; Cronin, D. T.; Esara Echube, J. M.; Seiffert, E. R. (August 16, 2016). "Ancient phylogenetic divergence of the enigmatic African rodent Zenkerella and the origin of anomalurid gliding". PeerJ. 4: e2320. doi:10.7717/peerj.2320. PMC 4991859. PMID 27602286.
- Werdelin, Lars; Sanders, William Joseph (2010). Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. University of California Press. p. 290. ISBN 9780520257214.
| Taxon identifiers | |
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| Zenkerella | |