The tale of an ice-preserved Alpine Long-Eared Bat in the Pyrenees

Abstract

The Alpine Long-eared Bat Plecotus macrobullaris (Kuzjakin, 1965) is a relatively recently defined species and one of the few bats able to occupy the high-mountain environment. The phylogenetic studies of this species suggest that it originated before the Middle Pleistocene. However, it has never been reported in ancient chronologies, no fossils are known, and the older recognized specimens are those from museum collections. One of the main reasons for this lack of ancient and fossil record is that the skeletal anatomy of this species has not been described in detail yet, making difficult the correct assignation of skeletal remains. We present a Long-eared Bat individual that was ice-preserved within the perennial ice in a high-mountain ice cave, SO-01, in the Pyrenees. The bat skin was radiocarbon dated, pointing that the specimen died more likely in a timeframe between 1760 and 1800 AD. Following previously published criteria based on cranial diagnostic features the recovered specimen was assigned to P. macrobullaris, which represents the most ancient record of this species in the Pyrenees and probably worldwide. In addition, some new observations have been described on both cranial and postcranial anatomical traits.