Now this squirrel, is a very special squirrel!
This is one of the earliest discovered
squirrel species to have roamed the planet.
These squirrel fossils
have been found mainly in Japan
and dates all the way back
to more than 160 million years ago.
That's right,
they're actually older than the dinosaurs,
that went extinct 65 million years ago.
Although the first squirrels were mammals,
they didn't give birth like they do now,
they actually laid eggs, squirrel eggs!
Egg, to be exact,
they would only lay one egg per season.
But due to evolution and better survival rate,
they evolved and gave birth to multiple young,
between 2 and 5 pups, instead of relying on
just a single offspring to carry the family on.
Their size and weight
haven't changed much since then and
they would have been about the same size
as Tintin, if they were alive today.
But all squirrel species today,
roughly 200 different species,
owe their heritage to this Squirrel.
So we thank you ancestor squirrel,
your persistence and survival gave us
all these beautiful squirrels we see today.
And with that said,
that concludes this section
of Amazing Squirrel Species.