Quaternary Bat Diversity in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

The fossil record of bats is extensive in the Caribbean, but few fossils have previously been reported from the Dominican Republic. In this paper, we describe new collections of fossil bats from two flooded caves in the Dominican Republic, and summarize previous finds from the Island of Hispaniola. The new collections were evaluated in the context of extant and fossil faunas of the Greater Antilles to provide information on the evolution of the bat community of Hispaniola. Eleven species were identified within the new collections, including five mormoopids (Mormoops blainvillei, †Mormoops magna, Pteronotus macleayii, P. parnellii, and P. quadridens), five phyllostomids (Brachyphylla nana, Monophyllus redmani, Phyllonycteris poeyi, Erophylla bombifrons, and Phyllops falcatus), and one natalid (Chilonatalus micropus). All of these species today inhabitant Hispaniola with the exception of †Mormoops magna, an extinct species previously known only from the Quaternary of Cuba, and Pteronotus macleayii, which is currently known only from extant populations in Cuba and Jamaica, although Quaternary fossils have also been recovered in the Bahamas. Differences between the fossil faunas and those known from the island today suggest that dispersal and extirpation events, perhaps linked to climate change or stochastic events such as hurricanes, may have played roles in structuring the modern fauna of Hispaniola.