Pteronotus pristinus
| Pristine mustached bat Temporal range: Late Quaternary |
|
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Chiroptera |
| Family: | Mormoopidae |
| Genus: | Pteronotus |
| Species: | P. pristinus |
| Binomial name | |
|
Pteronotus pristinus Silva-Taboada, 1974 |
|
Pristine mustached batPteronotus (Phyllodia) pristinus is an extinct Late Quaternary species of bat in the endemic Neotropical family Mormoopidae. It was distributed in Cuba and possibly Florida (United States).
This bat is known only from subfossils. It was described from Late Quaternary cave deposits in Cuba (Las Villas Province, Trinidad, Cueva de los Masones) and found also in Rancholabrean cave deposits in southern Florida (Monkey Jungle Hammock).
Florida specimens (two mandibles) were only tentatively referred to Pteronotus cf. P. pristinus, because they could not be directly compared with the Cuban material (several skulls, postcranial elements), but they may represent P. pristinus.
This is the only occurrence of Pteronotus in the United States, fossil or recent. Cuba is the most likely source for West Indian bats in Florida.
In Florida pristine mustached bat locally extinct at the end of the , what probably resulted from the rise in sea level, the subsequent flooding of caves and loss of roosting sites.
The sea level in Florida was as much as 100 m lower in late Pleistocene, as well water tables, and cave systems in Monkey Jungle Hammock, Cutler Hammock and Rock Springs were dry. But during the latest Pleistocene the rising sea level caused flooding of these cave systems and destroyed a hot and humid microclimate of so-called hot caves. Currently two first of them are sediment-filled sinkholes few meters above sea level, third one is submerged.
...
Wikipedia