A new species of extinct False Vampire Bat (Megadermatidae: Macroderma) from the Kimberley Region of Western Australia

Kyle N Armstrong,Ken Aplin,Masaharu Motokawa

doi:10.3853/j.2201-4349.72.2020.1732

Abstract

A new species of False Vampire Bat (Megadermatidae), Macroderma handae sp. nov., is described from dental, dentary and maxillary fragments recovered from limestone deposits at Dingo Gap, Oscar Range, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. This material is likely to be of Pliocene age, or early Pleistocene, based on biocorrelation within the same sample. The absence of the P2 indicates that it is more derived than Miocene taxa including M. malugara and M. godthelpi, but its phylogenetic position relative to M. koppa could not be determined. It appears to be slightly smaller than M. gigas and M. koppa based on the size of M1 and M2. It can be distinguished from M. gigas by the lesser degree of fenestration in the maxilla; and from all other species of Macroderma by the shape of the protofossa of the M1, plus the M2 protoconid relatively high and of proportionally greater area within the trigonid. Other material collected, but not identified completely or described, includes several lower canines from a species of emballonurid, and a dentary with M1-3 representing a vespertilionid bat. Given the wear striations observed on the M3 of the newly-described Macroderma species, we suggest that it was a predator of small vertebrates, including possibly the chiropteran co-inhabitants of the cave. This new species of Macroderma is the sixth species recognized in the genus so far, and the second from the Pliocene.

Highlights

The family Megadermatidae (False Vampire Bats) has a long history that began in the mid-Eocene with its divergence from the Craseonycteridae c. 44–43 Ma, based on molecular dating methods (95% credibility interval 47–39 Ma; Teeling et al, 2005; Foley et al, 2015)
The phylogenetic position of Macroderma handae relative to most megadermatids can be estimated based on the presence of various synapomorphies that characterize subclades within the family (Fig. 10)
The new species M. handae represents the second Pliocene species of Macroderma discovered to date, together with

Summary

Introduction

The family Megadermatidae (False Vampire Bats) has a long history that began in the mid-Eocene with its divergence from the Craseonycteridae c. 44–43 Ma, based on molecular dating methods (95% credibility interval 47–39 Ma; Teeling et al, 2005; Foley et al, 2015). The extant Macroderma gigas (Dobson, 1880) is currently distributed across northern Australia, from the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia, through the Top End of the Northern Territory and part of the Gulf Coastal and Mt Isa Inlier bioregions of the Northern Territory and northwestern Queensland, to Cape York, Queensland (Worthington Wilmer et al, 1999; Churchill, 2008) It contracted from areas further south in the Holocene (Molnar et al, 1984), and has declined further since the arrival of Europeans (Churchill & Helman, 1990; Churchill, 2008; Woinarski et al, 2014; Augusteyn et al, 2018; Armstrong et al, 2019). The other bat species are not sufficiently well represented for identification or formal description, but they do provide context for the occurrence of the megadermatid bones and teeth

Methods

Discussion