Division of Fossil Primates, Duke University Lemur Center, Durham, NC, 27705, USA.
Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.
J Hum Evol. 2020 Mar;140:102440. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.01.001. Epub 2018 Apr 6.
Fossil bats from the Pliocene of Africa are extremely rare, especially in East Africa where meager records have been reported only from two localities in the Omo River Basin Shungura Formation and from a scattering of localities in the Afar Depression, both in Ethiopia. Here we report on a diverse assemblage of bats from Kanapoi in the Turkana Basin that date to approximately 4.19 million years ago. The Kanapoi bat community consists of four different species of fruit bats including a new genus and two new species as well as five species of echolocating bats, the most common of which are two new species of the molossid genus Mops. Additionally, among the echolocating bats, a new species of the emballonurid Saccolaimus is documented at Kanapoi along with an additional Saccolaimus species and a potentially new species of the nycterid Nycteris. Compared to other East African Pliocene bat assemblages, the Kanapoi bat community is unique in preserving molossids and curiously lacks any evidence of cave dwelling bats like rhinolophids or hipposiderids, which are both common at other East African sites. The bats making up the Kanapoi community all typically roost in trees, with some preferring deeper forests and larger trees (molossids), while the others (pteropodids, nycterids and emballonurids) roost in trees near open areas. Living fruit bats that are related to Kanapoi species typically forage for fruits along the margins of forests and in open savannah. The echolocating forms from Kanapoi consist of groups that aerially hawk for insects in open areas between patches of forest and along water courses. The habitats preferred by living relatives of the Kanapoi bats are in agreement with those constructed for Kanapoi based on other lines of evidence.
非洲上新世的化石蝙蝠极为罕见，尤其是在东非，那里仅在奥莫河盆地的 Shungura 组的两个地方和埃塞俄比亚的 Afar 洼地的一些分散地点有少量记录。在这里，我们报告了来自图尔卡纳盆地的 Kanapoi 的蝙蝠多样性组合，这些蝙蝠的年代约为 419 万年前。Kanapoi 的蝙蝠群落由四种不同的果蝠组成，包括一个新属和两个新种，以及五种回声定位蝙蝠，其中最常见的是两种新的 Molossidae 属的 Mops。此外，在回声定位蝙蝠中，一种新的 Saccolaimus 属的 Emballonuridae 在 Kanapoi 被记录下来，还有另外一种 Saccolaimus 物种和一种可能的 Nycterid 属的 Nycteris 物种。与其他东非上新世蝙蝠组合相比，Kanapoi 的蝙蝠群落是独一无二的，它保存了 Molossidae，而且奇怪的是，没有任何证据表明有洞穴居住的蝙蝠，如 Rhinolophidae 或 Hipposideridae，而这两种蝙蝠在其他东非地点都很常见。构成 Kanapoi 社区的蝙蝠都通常在树上栖息，有些喜欢更深的森林和更大的树木（Molossidae），而其他的（翼手目、翼手目和 Emballonuridae）则在靠近开阔地的树上栖息。与 Kanapoi 物种有关的现存果蝠通常在森林边缘和开阔的热带稀树草原上觅食水果。来自 Kanapoi 的回声定位形式包括在森林斑块之间的开阔区域和沿着水道在空中捕食昆虫的群体。与 Kanapoi 蝙蝠的现存亲缘关系的偏好栖息地与基于其他证据为 Kanapoi 构建的栖息地一致。
