Did mammal beat birds to skies?

MAMMALS may have experimented with flight at the same time as the first birds, or even earlier, a new fossil discovery suggests.

A small, squirrel-like creature that lived in China 125 million years ago possessed a skin membrane that may have allowed it to glide from tree to tree, researchers have found.

The animal resembled modern flying squirrels, which are also adapted for gliding flight, but was a carnivore that fed on insects.