Archaeonycteris trigonodon Revilliod, 1917
Archaeonycteris trigonodon Revilliod, 1917
Middle Eocene Lutetian Messel near Darmstadt Hessia Germany
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 much rarer and somewhat larger - the wingspan is about 37cm. The largest bat in Messel is Hassianycteris magna with a wingspan of almost 50cm.
Lit.: 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. |
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.