Dictionary

scaletail en · NOUN

Etymology

From scale + tail, from the scales that appear on the tails.

Meanings

1. Any of the scaly-tailed species of flying squirrel, especially of Zenkerella insignis; a Cameroon scaly-tail.
   • Scaly-tailed flying squirrels, or scaletails, are placed in 4 genera and about 12 species, all but one of which, the flightless scaletail (Zenkerella insignis), possess gliding membranes. 1983, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica: Micropaedia (10 v.), page 204:
   • It can be found both in the capybara and the harvest mouse, in the beaver and the squirrel, and in the meadow mouse and the scaletail. 2013, Pierre-P. Grassé, Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation, →ISBN, page 6:
   • There is to be found in Africa, only, a flying-squirrel so different in structure and relationships that it is held to represent a separate order by some zoölogists, — the anomalurus lurus, or "scaletail." 1907, Ernest Ingersoll, The life of animals: the mammals, page 446:
   • The most generalised member of the family is the flightless scaletail (Zenkerella insignis) of West Africa, which has the appearance of a small grey squirrel, although furnished with scales on the tail. 1910, Harmsworth Natural History: A Complete Survey of the Animal Kingdom, page 550:

Forms