Myotis
Authors/Creators
- 1. Percy M. Butler, & Division of Fossil Primates, Duke Lemur Center, Durham, North Carolina, and Department of Mammalogy, American Museum of Natural History.
- 2. Marjorie Greenwood, & Deceased, formerly Royal Holloway University of London, London.
- 3. Deceased, formerly Natural History Museum, London.
- 4. Department of Mammalogy, American Museum of Natural History.
Description
Cf. Myotis sp.
Myotis sp., Butler, 1978: 65; Gunnell, 2010: 588.
REFERRED SPECIMEN: NMT.012/Bat, left damaged distal humerus, FLK NI, layer 3 (see table 1 for measurements).
DESCRIPTION AND DISCUSSION: NMT.012/Bat is the only specimen in the Olduvai sample that may represent Myotis. The distal end of the humerus of NMT.012/Bat has typical Myotis features including having a relatively narrow capitulum that is not offset from shaft, a lateral capitular tail that is less broad than trochlear surface and proximolaterally extended into a distinct lip, a trochlear groove that is essentially absent, and a trochlear surface that is relatively broad with a trochlear lip that is not sharply defined. Additionally, the medial epicondyle has a small process that does not extend distally beyond the trochlear ridge and the groove on the posterolateral surface of the epicondyle is deep, narrow, and distinct.
Of the 12 Myotis species living in Africa today (Simmons, 2005), only M. dieteri (Democratic Republic of Congo), M. morrisi (Ethiopia, Nigeria), M. scotti (Ethiopia), M. tricolor (subSaharan Africa), M. bocagii (western and southern Africa), and M. welwitschii (sub-Saharan Africa) are found south of the Sahara, and of these only M. welwitschii lives in Tanzania today. NMT.012/Bat represents a relatively large species of Myotis, such as M. welwitschii, and may well be related to, or even represent, that species.
Myotis is poorly represented in the fossil record of Africa in the Plio-Pleistocene and is restricted to southern Africa (Broom, 1948; Pocock, 1987) outside of the record from Tanzania and an occurrence in Morocco (Gunnell et al., 2011). Myotis is a common element of other Plio-Pleistocene faunal communities and is widespread across the northern continents during this time period (Simmons and Gunnell, in prep.).
Notes
Files
Files
(2.3 kB)
| Name | Size | Download all |
|---|---|---|
|
md5:62e42ec0b691d85fef444b1fa34c5f07
|
2.3 kB | Download |
System files
(13.6 kB)
| Name | Size | Download all |
|---|---|---|
|
md5:f1be2d263b08850d04be3986939238d9
|
13.6 kB | Download |
Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Biodiversity
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Order
- Chiroptera
- Family
- Vespertilionidae
- Genus
- Myotis
- Taxon rank
- genus
References
- Butler, P. M. 1978. Insectivora and Chiroptera. In V. J. Maglio and H. B. S. Cooke (editors), Evolution of African mammals: 56 - 68. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- Gunnell, G. F. 2010. Chiroptera. In L. Werdelin and W. J. Sanders (editors), Cenozoic Mammals of Africa: 581 - 597. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Simmons, N. B. 2005. Order Chiroptera. In D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder (editors), Mammal species of the world, a taxonomic and geographic reference, vol. 1: 312 - 529. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Broom, R. 1948. Some South African Pliocene and Pleistocene mammals. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 21: 1 - 38.
- Pocock, T. N. 1987. Plio-Pleistocene fossil mammalian microfauna of southern Africa - a preliminary report including description of two new fossil Muroid genera (Mammalia: Rodentia). Palaeontologia Africana 26: 69 - 91.
- Gunnell, G. F., T. P. Eiting, and D. Geraads. 2011. New late Pliocene bats (Chiroptera) from Ahl al Oughlam, Morocco. Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie 260: 55 - 71.