Archaeonycteris trigonodon Revilliod, 1917

Taxonomy

Bat

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata Haeckel 1874
Class: Mammalia Linnaeus 1758
Order: Chiroptera Blumenbach 1779
Family: Archaeonycteridae Revilliod 1917
Genus: Archaeonycteris
Species: Archaeonycteris trigonodon
Author Citation Revilliod, 1917

Geological Time Scale

Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Cenozoic
Period: Paleogene
Sub Period: None
Epoch: Eocene
International Age: Lutetian

Stratigraphy

Messel Formation

Provenance

Acquired by: Purchase/Trade

Location

Messel Pit
Darmstadt-Dieburg District
Hessen
Germany

• archaeonycteris
• darmstadt
• eocene
• hessia
• lutetian
• messel
• tff-oilshale-ch1721

Comments

Prepped by transfer method (Toombs, Harry; A.E. Rixon (1950). "The use of plastics in the "transfer method" of preparing fossils". The museums journal. 50: 105–107.)

As far as I know, four bat genera with a total of 8 species are known from Messel: Palaeochiropteryx tupaiodon and P. spiegeli, Archaeonycteris trigonodon and A. pollex, Trachypteron franzeni, Hassianycteris messelense, H. magna and Hassianycteris? revilliodi. The genus Palaeochiropteryx is the most common and smallest bat from Messel with a wingspan of around 26 to 29cm. Archaeonycteris is rarer and somewhat larger - the wingspan is about 37cm. The largest bat in Messel is Hassianycteris magna with a wingspan of almost 50cm.

References:
Revilliod, P. (1917): Fledermäuse aus der Braunkohle von Messel bei Darmstadt. Abhandlungen der Großherzoglichen Hessischen Geologischen Landesanstalt zu Darmstadt, 7 (2), 162-201.
Richter, G. & Storch, G. (1980): Beiträge zur Ernährungsbiologie eozäner Fledermäuse aus der "Grube Messel". Natur und Museum, 110 (12), p. 353-367.
Simmons, N.B. & Geisler, J.H.(1998): Phylogenetic relationships of Icaronycteris, Archaeonycteris, Hassianycteris and Palaeochiropteryx to extant bat lineages, with comments on the Evolution of echolocation and foraging strategies in Microchiroptera. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 235: 1-182.
Russel, D.E. & Sigé, B (1969): RÉVISION DES CHIROPTÈRES LUTÉTIENS DE MESSEL (HESSE, ALLEMAGNE). Palaeovertebrata, Montpellier, 1969, 3 : 63-182, 29 fig., 6 pl.