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A relict tropical forest bat assemblage from the early Miocene of the Ribesalbes-Alcora Basin (Castelló, Spain)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2020

Vicente D. CRESPO Open the ORCID record for Vicente D. CRESPO [Opens in a new window] ,
Paloma SEVILLA ,
Plini MONTOYA  and
Francisco J. RUIZ-SÁNCHEZ
Vicente D. CRESPO*
Affiliation:
División de Paleontología de Vertebrados, Universidad Nacional de la Plata Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo (CONICET), Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWALa Plata, Argentina. Museo Paleontológico de Alpuente, Avenida San Blas 17, 46178, Alpuente, Spain. Museu Valencià d'Història Natural, L'Hort de Feliu, BOX 8460, 46018, Alginet, Spain.
Paloma SEVILLA
Affiliation:
Departamento de Paleontología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain.
Plini MONTOYA
Affiliation:
Departament de Botànica i Geologia, Universitat de València, 46100, Burjassot, Spain.
Francisco J. RUIZ-SÁNCHEZ
Affiliation:
Museu Valencià d'Història Natural, L'Hort de Feliu, BOX 8460, 46018, Alginet, Spain. Departament de Botànica i Geologia, Universitat de València, 46100, Burjassot, Spain. INCYT-UPSE, Universidad Peninsula de Santa Elena, EC240150, Santa Elena, Ecuador.
*
*Corresponding author Email: vidacres@gmail.com
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Abstract

We present the bat assemblage from the early Miocene (MN4, 16.9–15.95 MY) basin of Ribesalbes-Alcora, which has yielded the remains of ten chiropteran taxa. Bat assemblages are rarely recovered in the fluvio-lacustrine fossil record. A bat species described in this work, Cuvierimops penalveri sp. nov., is a new form of a typically Oligocene free-tailed bat. In addition, the other molossids Hydromops helveticus, Rhizomops cf. brasiliensis, Chaerephon sp., Tadarida sp., and the vespertilionids Myotis cf. intermedius and Miostrellus aff. petersbuchensis, as well as undetermined fossils ascribed to the genera Submyotodon, Plecotus, and Rhinolophus are described. This is the first record of the genus Rhizomops in the early Miocene; the genus Cuvierimops is the first recording from the Neogene, while the ‘Lazarus taxon’ Chaerephon is the first fossil record of this genus, registered previously only in Holocene deposits. This bat assemblage with a high abundance of molossids is typical from the early Oligocene of western Europe, while in the early Miocene from Europe the molossids are scarce. The abundance of these bats is consistent with the presence of a tropical forest surrounding a paleolake. The fossils from the Ribesalbes-Alcora Basin represent the most complete bat assemblage of the Iberian Peninsula during this age, and significantly increase our knowledge about the early Miocene bats of Europe.

Keywords

ChiropteraCuvierimops penalveri sp. novLazarus taxapalaeoecologysystematics
Type
Articles
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Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 111 , Issue 4 , December 2020 , pp. 247 - 258
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Copyright © 2020 The Royal Society of Edinburgh

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