Myotis Myotis Research Articles

First records of the endangered Atacama Myotis Myotis atacamensis (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae), at high altitude in the Parinacota Province, northern Chile

espanolRESUMEN Myotis atacamensis presenta poblaciones severamente fragmentadas a lo largo de la costa de Peru y Chile. Actualmente se encuentra considerada como especie amenazada por la IUCN, debido a la fragmentacion de su habitat. En el presente trabajo reportamos el primer registro de esta especie utilizando registros de sus llamadas de ecolocacion a una altitud superior a 3.000 msnm, incrementando su distribucion en mas de 1.000 metros de altitud. EnglishABSTRACT Myotis atacamensis is a bat species with severely fragmented populations along the coast of Peru and Chile, recently considered as Endangered by the IUCN because of habitat fragmentation. Here we report for the first time records of the species via echolo-cation call analysis at localities above 3000 melevation, increasing the distribution of the species by more than 1000 min altitude.

Myotis myotis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) diverges into two distinct, Anatolian and European, populations

Myotis myotis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) diverges into two distinct, Anatolian and European, populations

The bat genome: GC-biased small chromosomes associated with reduction in genome size

Bats are distinct from other mammals in their small genome size as well as their high metabolic rate, possibly related to flight ability. Although the genome sequence has been published in two species, the data lack cytogenetic information. In this study, the size and GC content of each chromosome are measured from the flow karyotype of the mouse-eared bat, Myotis myotis (MMY). The smaller chromosomes are GC-rich compared to the larger chromosomes, and the relative proportions of homologous segments between MMY and human differ among the MMY chromosomes. The MMY genome size calculated from the sum of the chromosome sizes is 2.25 Gb, and the total GC content is 42.3%, compared to human and dog with 41.0 and 41.2%, respectively. The GC-rich small MMY genome is characterised by GC-biased smaller chromosomes resulting from preferential loss of AT-rich sequences. Although the association between GC-rich small chromosomes and small genome size has been reported only in birds so far, we show in this paper, for the first time, that the same phenomenon is observed in at least one group of mammals, implying that this may be a mechanism common to genome evolution in general.

LATEGLACIAL BATS FROM THE “M” LAYERS OF THE ARENE CANDIDE CAVE (LIGURIA, ITALY)

The Arene Candide Cave (Finale Ligure, Northern Italy) is considered one of the most important prehistoric site in Italy. The archaeological excavations conducted by the “Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana” of Rome revealed 3 different horizons: an upper horizon with Holocene human presence dated from the Neolithic to the Byzantine period, and two underlying Pleistocene horizons with Gravettian and Epigravettian lithic artefacts. The stratigraphical sequence of the upper Palaeolithic is divided in two groups of strata separated by a depositional gap: the “P” complex, divided in 13 layers, dated from 25,620 to 18,560 years BP, and the 5 “M” layers dated between 11,750 and 9,980 years BP (14C non-calibrated dating). In this paper the fossil bone remains of bats from “M” layers are described. Fifteen taxa, divided into 3 families and 6 genera have been identified: Rhinolophus ferrumequinum , R. mehelyi , R. euryale , R. hipposideros , Myotis myotis , M. blythii , M. capaccinii , M. emarginatus , M. mystacinus s.l. , Myotis sp. (small sized), Plecotus auritus s.l ., Nyctalus lasiopterus , N. noctula , Barbastella barbastellus and Miniopterus schreibersii . Comments for each of these taxa on current ecological and geographical distributions are presented, together with some osteometric measures and recent data referred to Late Pleistocene fossils bats in Italy. Finally, the value of this bat tanathocoenoses as a microclimatic, environmental, and human activity indicators is discussed. SHORT NOTE

Aggressive behaviour of greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) towards lesser horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus hipposideros) in a hibernaculum

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